Shadowchasers: Colors of Madness
by Scarlet Weather
Summary: Set ten years before Zero Reverse overloaded the Momentum engine. A strange spike in Shadow emigrations to the human realm prompts Jalal Dragonborn to dispatch the famed "Color Guard" as an information-gathering team to the vacation island of "Pleasureland". What they find there will challenge everything they know. What does it mean to be a hero in a world gone mad?
1. Chapter 1

Shadowchasers- Color of Madness

Acknowledgements-

Cyber Commander/Brian Corvello/The Corvelloverlord- For creating the Shadowchasers fandom, as well as allowing this story into canon and acting as a creative consultant and overseer.

Digidramon- For getting me interested in this.

7th Librarian- Ditto.

And You, the Reader- Thank you.

Author's Notes- Yu-Gi-Oh!, Dungeons and Dragons, Urban Arcana, etc. etc. et. al. are not my intellectual property, nor do I claim they are. The following story is a work of fiction, though if you didn't figure that out by the time I started bringing up magical powers you should probably seek help from a licensed mental health professional. This story is going to update sporadically, and there may be long time gaps between chapters. In the interest of finishing it, it will likely be wrapped up in 5-7 long-ish chapters or 10-12 shorter ones, whichever I can tell the story in most effectively.

All characters in this fanfic aside from those appearing in 'Shadowchasers' stories by other authors or in official Yu-Gi-Oh! Canon are my own. While the events of this fanfic are considered canon to the lives of each member, once this fanfic is completed they are public domain for any approved author to use- feel free to ask me about my own thoughts on each.

Fake cards, should they appear, are likewise approved (use in Shadowchasers fiction subject to approval from Cyber Commander, etc.)

**_Prologue- Color Guard_**

A group of four people sat around a round, wooden table in a small briefing room of Shadowchasers HQ, Germany. None of them was happy about it.

Jalal Dragonborn took stock of the four one by one as he waited for his final team member.

Harley Rowan. Age, thirty-four. Eyes brown, hair dyed a technicolor shade of blue and grown out until it reached past his shoulders. Shadowchaser officially dispatched to cover all rural counties from Virginia down south through Georgia with a Shadow density of less than two percent. CQC specialist, proficient with firearms. Twelve citations for disobedience to superior officers in the field, two for breaking protocol, though one of the latter two had been overturned in an official ruling Jalal himself had signed off on. He had showed up for this briefing both without his sword, and carrying a non-standard weapon he had somehow smuggled into the country (which had immediately been confiscated). Normally, Jalal would never have assigned him to a team, but in this case he was an apt member.

Sylvia Andersen. Age, forty-one. Eye color variable, naturally green. Hair color variable, naturally a dirty brown. Facial features variable. A wildshaping mage with more elf and dryad in her blood than human. Shadows ran so far through her ancestry that some rather unkindly referred to her as a 'mutt'. If she was, she certainly possessed hybrid vigor. She had been assigned to this squad based on her outstanding performance as an undercover officer, easily capable of infiltrating and observing action in any autonomous community of Shadows- or humans for that matter. At the moment, she was clearly not in her natural shape- her red hair and slightly pointed ears, as well as her freckled skin, seemed more elfin or fae than human.

Nicholas Mumford. Age, thirty-two. Eye color blue. Hair color, black. A specialist in translating Infernal, as well as interpreting the demands of devilish treaties and providing legal advice and negotiation to those unfavorably trapped by them who sought asylum from the Shadowchasers. Also-

Jalal stifled a giggle as he continued to organize the information in his mental dossier.

-also openly conducting a campaign to re-examine the Great Treaty, and planning to succeed the current leader of the Shadowchasers either by directly impeaching him or by being named his legitimate successor. Neither were likely to occur in Nicholas's lifetime, but despite his ambitions- or perhaps because of them- he still possessed an exemplary record.

Gideon. Age, a very young fifty. Eye color, brimstone yellow. Hair color, scorched red. Distinguishing marks, two polished black horns about an inch long jutting from his forehead. A tiefling who had been recently promoted to the head of his squad. Despite his Infernal heritage, a devoutly faithful and chivalrous member of the Shadowchasers. Among his faults-

Jalal this time sighed before returning to his dossier.

Among his faults, once, early into his career, trying to persuade Jalal to officially become canonized as a saint. About as opposite Sylvia as one could get in terms of ability to adapt to situations and new societies. On the flip side, arguably the best swordsman Jalal had ever seen.

Ever.

No sooner had Jalal finished his mental compilation than Harley had raised his booted legs up onto the table and waved his hand. "Yo, chief. I thought you said we were starting this meeting at three-thirty? Where's that little blonde chick with the tiny-"

"Please, for the love of all that is good and holy, do not finish that sentence while I am sitting here," Nicholas interrupted, adjusting his square-rimmed glasses as he did so. "It's bad enough that I have to endure the smell of that swill you keep drinking. Asking me to endure your rather half-hearted attempts at humor is really rather too much."

Harley cracked a mile-long grin. "Hey, pretty boy, that 'swill' is home-made moonshine from the _oni_ up in Wilderness. Only moonshine in the world that awakens the spirit and invigorates the mind. It's a replacement for _sake_ since you can't make the damn stuff properly out in dry country like that, and it's part of their goddam fucking religion."

"I fail to see your point." Nicholas yawned. "Presuming, of course, you even had one to begin with."

Gideon stirred. "Nicholas-"

"Hey now, big guy, don't worry. I can take care of myself." Harley leaned back in his chair, shoving his boots further along the table- and consequently, further into Nicholas's face. "My point is, that _swill_ is goddamn _sacred_, being allowed to drink it means I'm recognized as part of the tribe, and I don't want to hear another word about good and holy from someone getting it up the ass from a tiefling."

The remark was shocking enough that even Jalal was stunned into silence.

In the next instant, Nicholas was on his feet. The black trench-coat he wore was flung open, and he had produced a pair of shortswords from beneath its folds, their black hilts clearly decorated to make the weapons resemble crucifixes. "What did you say, you little-"

"Nicholas."

Before even Jalal could react, Gideon had stood up as well and placed a calming hand on Nicholas's shoulder. The tiefling's voice was rough and deep, but calm. Nicholas relaxed slightly, sheathing his twin blades and sitting down. "I apologize. That was a bit much," he muttered. Gideon smiled.

Harley burst into laughter. "Oh what the fuck _ever_, Nicky-boy. Even the high-and-mighty sword-of-the-fuckin'-Lord here knows that there's no point arguing where _your_ trousers-"

"Mr. Rowan." Gideon, unlike most Shadowchasers, actually wore his sword at his side- his hand rested lightly on the hilt. "I can assure you that Nicholas and I do not share a bed. Your obsession with the possibility of such a relationship proves less about his character and more about your lack thereof. Should you continue to pursue such vulgar conversation, I will have no choice but to defend the honor of my friend in the only language you seem to respect."

Harley rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, whatever. Watch out boys, we got ourselves a _badass_ in here." He removed his boots from the desk, only to stand up and look Gideon in the eye. "You may have fancy moves with that sword, Giddy-one, but if you try to swing it in my direction you're not walking away. Nobody around here actually gives a fuck as to whether you and Nicky are sexing it up, so why don't you sit down and let him fight his own battles, hmm?"

"The same reason you cannot stem the tide of offensive bile that dribbles from your mouth every time you open it." Gideon smirked. "It is simply not in my nature."

Jalal had taken the opportunity to move closer to Sylvia, who had been silent up to this point. "Are you not going to act to stop your team mates?"

"Privately, chief?" she whispered back, offering him a bag of mixed nuts from the pocket of the bright green jacket she wore, "I'm actually kind of hoping these two just mix it up a little. They're boys. They won't play nice until they've decided who has the biggest dick, pardon the expression."

Jalal opened his mouth for a moment, then closed it again. "Fair point."

The sortie was interrupted by a knock at the door. Jalal stood. "Come in, Miss Roman."

As the woman entered, Jalal re-opened his mental dossier. Ellen Roman. Age twenty-five. Eyes, blue. Hair, blonde. Young, up-and-coming researcher in the fields of magical analysis and anti-Shadow technology, and-

He blinked as she came into the room. That was odd, he hadn't ever included "Gothic lolita fashion model" in the dossier before. Something was not right. "Miss Roman, that's an... unusual style of dress, for you."

Ellen Roman rolled her eyes, placing a clipboard on the center of the table. Her dress was beyond extravagant for the meeting, and this was taking into account the fact that Harley had arrived in torn jeans and a biker's vest and Gideon had decided to wear a formal uniform not issued to field officers since 1451- complete with cape and greaves. The dress was ornate, trimmed in black lace, and its lilac sleeves and rippling skirt contrasted sharply with the black silk torso. The dress itself apparently not being enough, Ellen had chosen to wear her blonde hair in twintails tied by black hair ribbons, and had entered carrying a purple stuffed unicorn under one arm.

Harley moved his eyes away from Gideon for a moment. "Pfft. Didn't know you still played with dolls, blondie."

"I don't normally when I'm on the job. You all called me off of my vacation for an emergency," Ellen replied nonchalantly as she took her seat. "Let me guess- Harley said something offensive, Nicholas almost committed murder, Gideon is standing up for his honor and- Sylvia, have you started a betting pool yet?"

"Five on Gideon," Sylvia replied without missing a beat.

"See that and raise you five on Harley, but only if it's not a straight sword match," Ellen replied, before turning her attention to Jalal. "Sir, may I proceed with the debriefing?"

"Please, go ahead." Jalal shook his head. "Gideon, Harley, Nicholas. I have the utmost faith in all of your abilities, which is why you have been assigned to this task. Please don't betray that trust. If you need to fight things out in advance, do so, but by the time you reach Pleasureland I expect you ready to work as a team. Understood?"

"Pfft. Yeah, sure," Harley replied, sinking back into his seat.

Gideon made no verbal reply- he simply bowed to Jalal and returned to his own, not diverting his gaze from Harley's.

Jalal stood. "Miss Roman, the floor is yours. I've already chartered transportation for this group to Pleasureland- you all leave for the boat at exactly 0730 tomorrow morning. Remember, this may turn out to be nothing, but we are counting on you." He rose and moved toward the door. "Oh, and Sylvia?"

Sylvia raised an eyebrow. "Yes?"

"I match Miss Roman's bet, placing my money on Gideon." With that, Jalal exited the room.

"Fuck you too," Harley muttered under his breath.

Gideon gripped his sword handle again. "What was that?"

"I said you smell like-"

"Harley, I recognize that you're bored, but we have a serious mission to complete and I have a debriefing to conduct. You can play the macho game later," Ellen interrupted as she tapped the table. The wooden surface shifted, a panel sliding open to reveal an internal holograph project, which flipped to life and began displaying a three dimensional image of the globe. "Is everyone ready to listen?" There were murmurs of assent (and one grunt from Harley). She continued. "Okay. This is your earth." She snapped her fingers. Hundreds of small, red lights appeared across the globe's surface. "This is your Earth with a normal distribution of Shadow appearances. Each of these lights represents an individual Shadow's appearance. As you can see, quite a few of them, but this map was constructed from data collected over the past ten years. Now here," Ellen snapped again and the lights winked out and returned, their positions slightly different but undiminished in number, "is your Earth with all confirmed entry points of Shadow emigration to our plane of existence. The difference between this model and the last model? This one was constructed from reports we've received over the past ten _weeks._"

Harley whistled. "Impressive."

Nicholas leaned forward in his chair, pointing towards the globe. "Do the appearances show any distinct patterns in distribution, compared to normal emigrations?"

"As usual, the lawyer asks the million dollar question. The answer is, barely." Ellen touched the holographic globe with a finger and rotated it, allowing the others in the group to view it from all angles. "If you just look at the locations of each appearance together, they don't make much sense. But if you view them in the order they were reported?" She snapped her fingers once more. The lights went out, then began appearing, one by one. Slowly they spread, until the surface of the globe was populated once more. "The emigrations flare up in receding circles, moving from the poles up towards the equator- and they seem to be clustering now around one location in particular." She pointed to a small island, and made a pinching motion with her fingers. The virtual globe dissolved, replaced by a scale, holographic model of the island. "This little place is Pleasureland. An eccentric calling himself Geppetto bought up the place, and began to transition it into a personal resort island. His mansion is in the center, here." She tapped a particularly ornate building. "It's separated from the rest of the island by about five miles of jungle, with only one safe path- through a damn amusement park, of all things. The island itself is used not just as a personal retreat but as a vacation community. Geppetto rents the place out for anyone willing to pay. Any given time of year, you have a population of somewhere between two to three hundred vacationers. Other than that though, the big difference with this place is-"

"It has a disproportionately high Shadow population, doesn't it?" Sylvia interrupted. The others turned to her as she pointed to several spots on the map. "These buildings- the locations- they're designed to cater to Shadowkind tastes, not human ones. The low-ceiling bungalows are for shorter types like halflings, dwarfs, gnomes, what have you- even at this scale you can tell the ceilings are too low for an ordinary human to feel comfortable. The cottages there, close up with the jungle area- it's for sylvan Shadows, they don't like being too far from the trees and they don't need marked paths. Then you've got the wells everywhere, they have special significance for-"

"The amusement park has a dojo in it." This time the group turned to look at Harley, mostly with mild annoyance. "It's got reinforced walls- thicker than most of the other buildings. Sits right off to the side there. Yeah, that kind of construction? That's a _yokai_ bar, in disguise. Geppetto's catering to some dangerous clients." He cracked his knuckles. "We haven't investigated this guy before... why now?"

"If I may continue," Ellen broke in, the sweetness of her voice failing to disguise her frustration. "The reason that, up until now, we haven't touched the place is that it's private property. Without a proper warrant and official sign-off, there's no reason to send a team in there. And up until now, no matter how many Shadows may come to stay on the island, there's been no reason to hand down a warrant. That is, until recently. One of our Research teams monitoring the island from the mainland reported an intense magical flux- the place reached levels that were near chill-grill for a few minutes and died back down. Right after that, the reports of the emigration flair-ups tapered off. Something is happening on this island." Ellen stood once again, stroking her stuffed unicorn's mane as she did so. "Your mission, should you all choose to accept it- not that you all actually have a choice, we've got orders- is to head down and investigate the source of the flare-up and report back to base. As of right now we are not authorized to engage in combat or make arrests without reporting back to base first. Our top priority is reconnaissance. Any questions?"

"What if _we_ get attacked, sweet cheeks?" Harley asked. "Our big boss got a problem with defending ourselves?"

"If you ever call me that again I will personally remove every single one of your organs. I will keep you conscious and alive through the whole process. Then I'll step on them, sew them back in, and laugh." Ellen delivered her retort without a hint of malice in her voice, and made sure to offer her sweetest smile at the end. Nicholas scooted his chair back from the table, suddenly becoming very interested in his watch. "The answer to your question is that no authorization is required for self-defense, but you're expected to report hostile engagements at the first possible opportunity. Does anyone have any questions _not_ related to their inability to function in the field if they aren't allowed to punch the first suspect they locate?"

Sylvia was the next one to raise a hand, politely using her other to hide the size of her smile. "Got any other relative intel about the island? Number of paid guards, what the guy's got in place of a police force, their equipment and training?"

Ellen nodded. "Ah yes, almost forgot to mention. Pleasureland has absolutely no formal security presence. The closest thing they have is a group of patrol boats who come in from the mainland every morning and monitor the island to make sure people aren't entering or leaving without payment. There has never been a recorded instance of law enforcement needing to intervene."

Gideon cleared his throat. "Do we have official word about our chain of command in the field?"

"Knew you or Nicholas would ask that one," Ellen replied in a disinterested tone as she removed a slip of paper she had hidden in the sleeve of her dress. "Let's see- Jalal's official orders are- ayup. I'm mission coordinator and I have free reign to conduct my research into events without any restrictions. Sylvia will be acting privately to support all of us since she needs to go native to effectively gather local reports. You three boys are acting as a group, Jalal recommends- huh. Recommends Nicholas be the leader of the sub-team, since you and Harley are unlikely to follow each other's orders and we need discipline in the field. And that's about it."

The three men turned to look at each other. Gideon spoke first. "Duel."

Sylvia grinned, pumping a fist into the air. "Called it!"

Nicholas simply groaned. "Gideon, must you? It's bad enough we're vacationing for a week with-"

"He impugned your honor, friend. That's reason enough to settle things." Drawing his blade, Gideon pointed the tip of the dwarven-forged sword at Harley. "I, Gideon, challenge you to fair and single combat, Harley Rowan, for the honor of my friend. Should I be victorious, you will apologize to him personally and forever hold your peace in his presence, saying only as much as necessary to pay your respects and coordinate this mission."

"Eh, whatever." Harley rolled his eyes. "Not my fault you can't take a little ribbing. Fine, challenge accepted, on two conditions. First, if I win, you and Nicky give me leave to do whatever the hell I want on this mission the moment things turn sour. One stray shot, one hair out of place, you leave the heavy lifting to me and you don't ask questions. Sound fair enough?"

"You mean you intend to disobey orders?" Gideon scowled. "I will not allow you to impugn the honor of the entire organization simply to-"

"Calm your tits, Giddy. I'm talking about if, not must. I'm not going to make you lie to the top brass or anything on my account. What I'm saying is if I can beat you, when the time comes to fight, you let me fight. Understand?"

Gideon's scowl receded, but he kept his sword trained on Harley. "And your second condition?"

Harley licked his lips in anticipation. "I pick the contest. I promise nothing where either of us can get any permanent scarring or injury, and nothing I have an obvious advantage in. Fair fight. Sound good to you?"

Gideon snorted. "One hour. All rules must be declared before we engage."

"Wouldn't dream of anything different. I think you'll actually like what I've got in mind, Giddy."

Sylvia rolled her eyes. "I suppose you all will want me to referee?"

Both Gideon and Harley nodded.

"Right then. I'll see about getting one of the extra duel rooms free for you two."

Harley stopped her as she began to stand up. "Oh, Sylvie? Make sure it's a big room."

Sylvia pursed her lips, then grinned. "Oh, this will be interesting."

Ellen stood up as Sylvia exited. "I'll be along to watch this one, but if you don't mind- I have to prepare a few extra things for our trip." She took her leave as well.

Harley stood up and cracked his knuckles. "Page me when Sylvie finds the location, okay lover-boys?"

Nicholas and Gideon were left alone in the room. Nicholas crossed over to his friend's side, laying a hand on his shoulder. "I shouldn't have let you do that."

"Probably not, but it would have been done anyway," Gideon replied as he returned his sword and sheath to his side. "I may be able to hide it more easily than you but I can't abide that man any more than you do, old friend. I am sorry he brought your chastity into-"

"That's not what upset me Gideon." Nicholas shook his head, a half-smile lighting up his face.

"It was not?" Gideon blinked in surprise. "So then, you almost attacked him because-"

"He implied you were cursed. Unholy in some way. Defiled." Nicholas clenched his fists, well-manicured nails almost digging into his palms. "Nobody has the right to say anything like that about you. Not after all you've accomplished."

Gideon laughed- a deep, bass laugh which filled the room. "Old friend, I appreciate your concern, but leave your defenses to the courtroom. Violence on my behalf is unnecessary."

"And it is on mine, is that it?" Nicholas countered. "Gideon, you can't keep playing white knight this way. I could have fought my own battles if I had needed to, you know that."

"Aye. But you shouldn't have to. Not against someone like him." Gideon shook his head. "What Sir Jalal ever saw in him I'll never know. It's only a matter of time before he's out of our hair- and with any luck, today, we won't have to worry about him again. I had best prepare, old friend. You'll be watching, I trust?"

"Wouldn't miss it for the world," Nicholas responded, half-smiling. Gideon returned the smile, and turned, making for the door. "Oh, Gideon, one other thing?"

Gideon paused, turning back towards his friend. "Yes?"

Nicholas coughed. "Erm... I'm not sure how to say this but... in the future, don't bother making challenges on my behalf if someone insists we're- how did you put it?- sharing a bed. Nothing could be less offensive to me."

Gideon smiled. "I appreciate the sentiment." With that, he left.

Nicholas stood alone for a moment, sighing.

"Gideon... you really are dense sometimes."

TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT

The duel room had cleared out.

Only five people stood within it now. Anyone else had been warned out of the room, and a sign reading "beware of the rabid Gigobyte" had been taped to the door. In the center of the room, a pair of duel disks sat, waiting to be used. Both were state of the art models, built to last, with self-updating card databases capable of rendering the image of any duel monsters card fresh off the line. Collectors would have paid through the nose to acquire either.

Neither Gideon nor Harley paid any particular attention to them. The two were squared off against each other, separated only be a few feet of space, each holding a wooden training sword.

Gideon was the first to speak. "I'm surprised at you. You must know that in a match such as this, you have no chance of victory."

Harley smirked. "That's my line. What's the matter Gideon, running out on me already?"

The tiefling snorted. "Hardly."

Ellen and Nicholas stood to the side, both barely believing what was taking place in front of them. Sylvia stood between the two combatants, one of her hands raised into the air, preparing to deliver the signal to begin the match.

"He picked a sword battle?" Nicholas asked, incredulously.

Ellen sighed. "I can't say I know what he's thinking either. Of all the contests, he picks the only one Gideon is guaranteed to win."

Anyone looking at the two could tell that despite Harley's expression of confidence, he wasn't prepared for this. His stance was awkward, and ill-suited to the fencing expertise the weapon he was holding required. Gideon, on the other hand, exhibited a form which was nothing less than perfect- no, more than perfect. Artistic.

Nicholas continued to watch the two. "I'm worried."

"For Harley? That's a shock. I thought you hated him," Ellen replied.

Nicholas shook his head. "No. He's a thousand years too early to beat Gideon in a fight like this- but Harley would never have picked this if he didn't think he could. And that's what worries me."

"Your friend catches on quick!" Harley laughed derisively, pointing his sword at Gideon. "How about it? Want to back out now?"

Gideon shifted his stance slightly, the better to launch his first strike. "Keep your sword held at the ready, Harley Rowan."

Sylvia cleared her throat and spoke up. "Er-herm! Well, if everyone's ready?" The combatants and onlookers quieted themselves for a moment, and she continued. "The rules are simple. This is an informal fencing match, with only two rules. First, only the head, chest, stomach, and back areas are legal scoring grounds. Second, the match ends with first blood, no matter how light the hit. Are both fighters ready?"

Gideon and Harley nodded.

Sylvia brought down her arm. "Begin!"

Harley lunged, his sword moving in a wild arc towards Gideon. The tiefling simply shifted his footing and brought up his own blade to block, turning the force of the strike away from himself and causing Harley to stumble forward, leaving his back exposed.

At least, that was the theory. In practice the moment Harley's sword met his own, Gideon was the one to stumble a few steps backward, catching himself just in time to skip backward and avoid a second, downward slice. Harley's face lit up. "What's the matter, tiefling?"

Nicholas frowned, examining Harley. "That counter should have been effective. Against any other opponent it would have been. But-"

"That's Harley for you." Eliza replied, keeping her own attention on the fight. She had at some point removed a small ear-mounted scanner, and was watching the battle through its green lens. "Gideon may be the Sword of the Lord, but Harley's got the strength of the devil himself."

"Trust me. Devils don't fight like that." Nicholas muttered, watching the two clash. What should have been a completely one-sided fight was starting to look far more even. Harley apparently only had one tactic- the wild, two-handed slash- but his attacks were so swift that it took everything Gideon had simply to move out of range, and the power behind them sent him off-balance every time he attempted a block. "How the hell is a human being that strong?"

Sylvia shook her head. "Hey, Nicholas, relax. I don't think you'll need to worry about Gideon that much longer."

Nicholas studied the two for another moment. Then he smirked. "Ah."

Gideon danced out of the way of yet another wild strike. The two had been fighting long enough now that both were breathing hard, and Harley's body was covered in sweat. The tiefling raised his sword, preparing for an attack. "We'll settle things here."

Harley grinned, raising his own sword to match. "I was wondering when you'd get tired of running away."

"To retreat is not to run away," Gideon replied, his voice completely calm. "It is merely preparation for a decisive attack."

In the next moment, he flew forward. His sudden thrust was met with Harley's wild swing, which knocked Gideon's blade out of its path- but only for a moment. The tiefling executed a quick turn on his heel, stepped forward, and lunged directly at his opponent's unprotected back, attacking at an angle at which Harley could not possibly block.

There was a loud, cracking noise as wood met flesh.

"See what I mean? Gideon was just saving his energy to-" Sylvia's voice trailed off as she raised her hand to stop the battle.

"You know," Harley taunted as the sound of wood splintering filled the room, "for someone bragging about how he was going to settle this, you're pretty shit at the whole finishing-blow thing, Gideon."

That attack had been impossible to block. Everyone in the room knew it. But it had been blocked.

Harley's sword lay on the floor, several feet away. The moment Gideon had launched his attack, he had dropped his blade and twisted his hands behind his body, somehow, impossibly, catching the strike. The cracking sound which had filled the room was the noise of a solid, wooden sword coming to pieces in Harley's grip.

"You would cheat to win a petty disagreement?" Gideon glared at Harley, keeping hold of the hilt of his sword despite Harley's death-grip on the blade.

Nicholas covered his eyes with his hand, shaking his head from side to side. "Of course. I should have listened more carefully to that set of rules."

"Your boyfriend's got it right, Gideon." Harley grabbed a spot higher up along the blade of Gideon's sword, turning to face the tiefling as he did so. "You let me pick the rules, and the rules said that scoring grounds were the head, torso, and back. I didn't say a damn thing about whether hands, arms, feet or legs counted. Didn't you stop to wonder what the reason for that was?" Gideon struggled, trying to pull his blade out of Harley's hands, but it was no use. "You just assumed 'it's a sword fight, he's going to play by the arbitrary little rules of a sword fight and seriously try to beat me with a weapon he knows I'm better at using'. What kind of an idiot do you think I am?"

Gideon continued to pull back against Harley's grip. "You're abusing a technicality to gain an advantage? Have you no shame? No sense of décor, or honor?"

"I leave bullshit like that on my mantlepiece at home, where it belongs," Harley smirked. "Honor's all fine and good if the other person gives a shit about it. When they don't, if you walk in trying to play the good and pure white knight, you run into someone who does- this."

Gideon had no time to react as Harley twisted his sword, pulling it from his grip, and lunged forward in the same motion, driving an elbow into Gideon's stomach. Winded, the tiefling stumbled back- just in time for Harley to reverse the now-broken sword he had snatched from him, and swing its blunt edge towards Gideon's chest with enough force to crack the tiefling's ribs.

An arc of light cut through the air, intercepting Harley's blade at the hilt and severing it before it could make contact. Nicholas stood between Gideon and Harley, his own sword unsheathed and at the ready. "You've made your point, Harley."

Harley glanced at what remained of the sword in his hand and shrugged, tossing the broken weapon over his shoulder. "Yeah, you're right. I did." He turned and walked toward the door.

Sylvia raised an eyebrow. "Aren't you going to wait for me to call a winner?"

"Nah. Far as I'm concerned, it's his win. Fat lot of good that does you though, eh, Gideon?" The tiefling struggled to breathe as Harley continued walking towards the door. "Just remember this. You don't have time to get antsy about the letter of the law, Giddy. This little operation may turn out to be a paid vacation with a bit of smoozing with the local Shadowkind, or it may go all to shit. And if it does, I'm going to fight for my life and the lives of my team and the people who _can't_ fight, however the hell I have to do that. Whatever the costs. If you start giving me grief about breaking the rules when that happens-" he laughed mirthlessly. "Well, I'd just keep a hold of that broken sword. Call it a reminder."

With that he was through the door, and gone.

Nicholas was the first to speak. "Gideon, are you alright?"

Breathing heavily, the tiefling pulled himself to his feet. "He pulled the punch. I'll be fine," he grunted. "Just... fine."

"Brilliant. We've managed to get one of our own injured and sow tension in the ranks before we even make it out to the field." Eliza shook her head slowly. "This mission is off to an excellent start."

Nicholas frowned. "Something about this bothers me. Something he said."

Sylvia nodded. "Well, yeah, but that's all standard Harley. I know you and Gideon are big on by-the-book, Nick, but he's-"

"That's not it. Insubordination is to be expected from the Chaser voted 'most likely to be mistaken for a minotaur'," Nicholas replied. "Don't tell me you all didn't notice?"

"Oh, you caught that too?" A smile played around Eliza's lips. "You're sharper than you look."

"I'll ignore the backhanded nature of that compliment for the sake of avoiding further conflict," Nicholas replied, waving his hand. His sword melted into mist and vanished.

Gideon frowned, finally beginning to catch his breath. "Will one of you please explain... what's so fascinating about the drivel that beast poured out on us?"

"'If this goes south'," Nicholas replied, doing a fairly accurate impression of Harley's voice. "Doesn't it strike you as odd? Harley specifically asks about whether we're allowed to resort to violence in the case of emergency. Then he challenges you to a fight, and rather than taking the opportunity to show you up and beat you head-on- and you know he's always wanted to- he throws the match in order to turn it into an object lesson. He's acting extremely concerned about what sounds like a routine scouting mission. Why? Why is he so fixated on making his point now?"

Gideon pursed his lips. "I see... you suspect he's going rogue?"

"It's Harley. He went rogue a while ago and he just keeps reporting back to base for the hell of it," Eliza replied, shaking her head. "I'm less concerned that he'll go maverick in the field- really, with him that's almost expected behavior at this point. What's concerning is he's talking about that in regards to a mission that should just be a quick in and out. What the hell does he know that we don't? And why?"

"A potential traitor," Gideon muttered.

"He wouldn't." Sylvia shook her head. "I've seen him in the field. Harley's never once taken an action that recklessly endangered civilian lives. The worst you can accuse him of is brutality in the field and insubordination." She paused. "Okay, and being drunk on the job once. That was a special occasion though. The point is, he's loyal enough in his own way. If anything, he's probably protecting us by not sharing what he suspects."

"Or what he knows." Nicholas frowned, as a chill ran down his spine.

_To Be Continued_

TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT

**Shadowchasers Personnel Profile-**

_**Harley Rowan and the Wilderness Bunch**_

**Active Period: **15 years pre-Momentum- ?

**Specialties- **CQC, Weapons Acquisition, Proficient with Firearms, Use of Vehicles, Insider with Oni

**History with the Force- **Harley Rowan joined the Shadowchasers roughly fifteen years before an incident later referred to as "Zero Reverse" resulted in the destruction of a significant portion of Domino City. Native to the US, he was recruited off the streets when two Chasers found him protecting the patrons of a bar by barehand brawling with a minotaur.

Since then he has gathered a reputation for insubordination and utter contempt for the organization he is a part of. He was eventually assigned to 'Wilderness', a low-Shadow density territory requiring the services of only one patrolling Chaser, in order to keep him out of the way of team assignments.

Despite his inability to play nice with the other Chasers, Harley has proved himself again and again to be a competent defender of justice, if not a particularly heroic one. His excessive brutality in apprehending suspects has resulted in more than one complaint from his superiors, but because of his presence the Shadowchasers were able to not only gain friendly ties with the so-called "Wilderness Bunch", but also access to an entire school of martial arts previously untaught to humans.

**Keywords- **_Strength of an Oni, Wilderness Bunch, Oni Martial Arts_

The so-called "Wilderness Bunch" is a self-sufficient tribe of _oni_ settled in the rural, eastern US- as far as possible from the main house. They are a splinter group, and not connected with the larger houses of _yokai_. They're considered a wild and uncontrollable bunch, having split off from the main group predominantly because of their group culture, which centers around drinking, fighting, and festivals. The Wilderness Bunch are unusual in that they have been known to accept non-_oni_ into the tribe, provided one can out-drink and out-fight them, both feats Harley has managed. The so-called 'moonshine' they brew is actually a ceremonial beverage meant to stand in for more traditional rice wines, and causes feelings of euphoria and battle-lust in the drinker, awakening their 'warrior's soul'. It is an integral part of tribal rituals, and as such it is absolutely forbidden for those outside the tribe to drink it unless it is offered to them by a member. Doing so otherwise is a grave insult, and will result in a fight to the death.

Harley has spent a good portion of his adult life both before and after joining the Chasers with this tribe. He joined the tribe at a relatively young age, and since then he has frequently drunk, fought, and lived among them, to the point where his body has literally begun to take on more oni-like traits, becoming superhumanly strong and durable. An old legend says that a man who bathes in the blood of a thousand _yokai_ becomes one himself. While this myth is unproven, Harley is probably an example of its origins.

The 'Way of Red' and the 'Way of Blue' are the two schools of martial arts taught by the Wilderness bunch. The Way of Red focuses on unarmed combat, while the Way of Blue focuses on the use of both formal and makeshift weapons. Harley is a master of the former style, and still learning the second. Oni martial arts are unusual in that they are meant to take advantage of Oni physical traits. In addition, their purpose is considered less to be a matter of self-defense, and more one of 'communication and destruction'- Oni exchange ideas by brawling in the Wilderness Bunch, and have a strict policy of making sure enemies 'never fight back'. The Way of Red in particular is unusual in that it is the only known martial art, human or Shadowkind, where the 'disarming' techniques are literally recommendations for the best way to remove an opponent's appendages with your bare hands.

Since Harley's membership, the Shadowchasers have begun working on adapting elements of the Way of Red and Way of Blue into their own martial arts curriculum.

_**Next Time-**_

_**Chapter One- Colors of Rage**_

_The group lands on Pleasureland, and what they find is anything but what they expected. Or is it?_

_In the realms of madness, will anything go according to plan?_

**Shout-Out Drinking Game! Spot the shout-outs within the text before they're revealed in the next chapter, take a shot, and try to out-drink Harley!**


	2. Chapter 2

Have you been paying attention? The Shout Out Drinking Game's first results!

"**Sword of the Lord"-** Gideon's nickname is a Biblical reference. The battle cry of the soldiers of the Jewish hero, Gideon, is sometimes rendered as "The Sword of the Lord and of Gideon!" in contemporary translations of the Book of Judges.

**Ellen's Dress and Stuffed Unicorn**- I'm sure there's nothing significant at all about the magical researcher's dress being _purple and black_ and her carrying around a stuffed _unicorn_, is there? In unrelated news, Twilight Sparkle is best pony.

**The Wilderness Bunch- **For a group of Oni, it's odd that their name is technically a reference to a Western _(The Wild Bunch_, itself inspired by a samurai film)_._

"**This is your Earth..."**-Apparently, Ellen is inordinately fond of anti-drug PSA commercials from the late eighties and early nineties. Too much television, perhaps?

"**Geppetto"/ "Pleasureland"**- The Disney film may have named its land of hedonism "Pleasure Island", but the use of the Italian toy maker's name should be enough to link things back to Pinocchio.

**Harley's Barehanded Sword Counter- **While the scenes play out differently and this was included for a different purpose, this move was inspired by the character Eugenides as he appears in the book _The King of Attolia_. Read it if you want to understand how or why. _The Thief_ and _The Queen of Attolia_, the two previous novels in the series, aren't necessary to understand this book- but they are highly recommended.

Harley managed three shots of pure Wilderness Bunch moonshine this time. How many did you earn the right to drink?

_Minor Corrections-_

Corrections from the last chapter I haven't bothered to edit:

-The story states that the group is meeting in the Shadowchasers HQ in "Germany", not Britain, where it is actually located.

-Ellen is mistakenly referred to as "Eliza" after the fight scene. Dammit Skullgirls. You drive me to forget my original character names.

-Harley's entry in the Personnel Profile lists his active period as beginning "15 years Pre-Momentum". This was a mistake- his active period begins five years before Colors of Madness takes place, or fifteen years pre-_Zero Reverse, _not the development of Momentum energy.

Misc. Notes- Thaddeus Kleig donated by 7th Librarian (his first appearance is in Shadowchasers: Twice Told Tales during the fourth chapter). Mind, I also donated a few things to that chapter, so we'll call it even~

**Shadowchasers- Colors of Madness**

_Chapter 1: Colors of Rage_

"_The ancient Micmacs knew what it was... something that had been touched by the Wendigo."_

-Jud Crandall, _Pet Sematary_

Nicholas decided that he hated boats almost as soon as _H.M.S. Titan_ left the harbor.

No. He did more than hate boats. He loathed them with every fiber of his being. He felt nothing but rage at their existence. If every square micrometer of the trillions of cells in his body were engraved with a treatise explaining how much he loathed boats, it would not express one one-trillionth of the sheer amount of hatred he felt for boats within any given second.

Hate.

_Hate._

The _Titan_, contrary to its name, was little more than a patrol boat kept on call for official Shadowchaser use, should they acquire a naval transport for a small team. It barely had the fuel required to make the trip into Pleasureland, barely had proper accommodations for five passengers even if they _didn't_ hate each other, and had no magical defenses to speak of. After his years working on translating Infernal, Nicholas didn't feel truly safe unless he was surrounded by at least three wards and a circle of protection, and had sacraments on standby.

In addition, Nicholas discovered that he was prone to seasickness less than three knots from the harbor.

To make matters worse, Harley seemed to be enjoying himself. Despite his behavior at the briefing and during the fight afterward, the burly Chaser seemed to have settled back into a relaxed state, and had begun mingling with the ship's regular crew and exchanging stories with some of the sailors. Sylvia had joined him, and together the two were laughing up a storm as they passed a bottle of smuggled-aboard rum back and forth while Gideon and Ellen weren't looking. Even if he hadn't been in danger of releasing the contents of his stomach onto the ship's deck, Nicholas would have been annoyed by this particular development- in his personal opinion, the only berth Harley deserved on board the ship was located on its bottom, where he would make an excellent barnacle-scraper.

Normally in this kind of a situation, he would turn to Gideon for comfort. As much as Nicholas would never admit it in front of Harley, right now a hug or back rub from the tiefling would be absolutely heavenly. The problem was-

"I respect your right to a differing opinion, Miss Roman. However, while I may respect your right to hold it, it is my solemn duty to inform you that Edo Phoenix is in fact the greatest professional duelist of all time, and your far more base appreciation for his competitor is simply baffling to me."

"And I respect your right to an opinion as well, Gideon, but it just so happens that you're _talking out of your anal passage_ when you say that Phoenix had anything resembling the greatest record in professional dueling. Edo was in pro dueling for an excess of twenty years, and Sho Marufuji retired after _ten_ with a comparable record. Less than half the time, more than equal skill- I'd say he surpassed the Phoenix." Ellen nodded decisively.

When Gideon got into an argument about pro duelists, _nobody won._

Nicholas staggered to the side of the vessel. His heart was filled with regret- breakfast had been rather delicious that morning, and it pained him that he would be seeing most of it again in a less-pleasant capacity.

Mostly though, his heart was filled with hate.

_Hate._

TTTTTTTTTTTTTT

Nicholas awoke with a sense of _wrongness_ that pervaded every fiber of his being, scouring every trace of nausea from his system.

The passengers of the _Titan_ had been informed that they would be making land that evening, so he had gone to the berth provided for him to sleep off the seasickness. The others had still been on deck, bantering and swapping stories well into the evening. He didn't know if they sensed it, but he could.

The _air _was wrong. Everything tasted foul.

Nicholas took only a moment to grab his coat and wrap it around himself, checking that his swords were prepared for use and that his own defensive amulets were charged and prepared for use. He burst onto deck in time to see it.

There, only meters away, was Pleasureland- the island illuminated by the light of a gorgeous sunset, painting the sky red. The instant he saw the shore, Nicholas felt his heart wrench. The source of the _wrongness_ was this place. He could feel it.

The other Chasers moved towards Nicholas, Gideon placing a hand on his shoulder. "Are you alright, old friend? We were just about to inform you that the ship was ready to make land."

Nicholas shrugged off the hand, ignoring Gideon's hurt expression. Any other time the attention would have been welcome, but not now. "Everything's wrong," he gasped, suddenly aware of the clenching feeling in his chest. "Something's gone wrong here. I can taste it. This place is-"

It was at that moment that a purple flare of light burst from the center of the island and exploded in mid-air, expanding into a shimmering barrier of violet flames which encircled the island.

Harley was the first to react. "We've got company."

"Magical barrier, sealing spell, type unknown." Ellen stood on the ship's prow, adjusting an ear-mounted scanning lens she had removed from somewhere within her dress. "It extends to about five kilometers in every direction outside the island. Contact unlikely to be effective through conventional or magical means, due to what appears to be a self-feedback loop which rebounds any attempts to leave the barrier back towards the center. We're trapped."

Sylvia groaned. "Brilliant. Just once, I was hoping we could have a mission where everything is sweetness and laughter for a change."

Gideon said nothing, drawing his sword. "Nicholas-"

Nicholas grabbed the tiefling by the shoulder and pulled him to the side, motioning to the others. "All of you. Around me. Now."

The group nodded, doing as he said- even Harley. Nicholas reached into the pocket of his coat and tossed a cloud of silver powder into the air before closing his eyes. "_Oh blessed remains, guided by my hand, encircle me now."_

The powder settled onto the ground and reshaped itself, transforming into a double-layered magic circle inscribed in silver around the five Chasers. Nicholas continued chanting. "Let all who would harm us mind or body be repelled! _Release and uphold your contract, Silver Storm!"_

The moment the incantation was complete, a cyclone of silver energy rose from the edges of the circle and surrounded the trio. Harley turned to Nicholas, who was breathing easier. "Interesting magic you got there, Nicky. Where'd you learn this one, the first circle of hell?"

"Hardly," Nicholas replied, checking the spell to ensure his defense had no blind spots. "It's basic contract magic. You don't get far in the study of Infernal law without some form of defense. In my case, it was learning how to create certain protective circles. The incantations are simply my 'passwords' for spell activation, they let me bypass the ten-line Celestial chants I had to learn in order to use these-"

The winds died down, revealing the status of the world outside.

Harley cracked a lopsided grin. "I think things just officially got interesting."

Sylvia breathed in sharply. "What the hell just happened here?"

Smoke rose from what, before Nicholas's spell had been invoked, had been a perfectly tranquil looking island. What had once been quaint beach homes were reduced to charred scrap and kindling, or stained with blood. Corpses of beachgoers were strewn across the ground, bloody hand prints painting them. The sound of a scream pierced the air and was silenced. The once-beautiful forests seemed sinister, and in the distance the smoke of a fire rose into the air.

"I don't know," Nicholas frowned.

Gideon looked up. "The sun has changed positions."

When Nicholas had cast the spell, it had been sunset. The position now indicated that it was already high noon.

Nicholas shook his head. "That isn't in itself unusual. That barrier spell is meant to defend against any active attempts to cause the caster physical or mental harm. It has enough energy to maintain itself for seventy-two hours, and will only end its protective effects when all within the boundaries are safe from any immediate magical danger. It has a side effect of decelerating time within its boundaries, keeping the caster and targets frozen in the moment."

"So three days could have passed already before whatever was about to hit the island moved out of the range of us." Ellen nodded slowly. "Good work, Nicholas."

"Good work?" Gideon's voice was tinged with a hard edge. "Nicholas, why would you do this? And Miss Roman, why would you commend him?"

Nicholas stepped back in surprise. "Gideon?"

"Our duty as Shadowchasers was to safeguard everyone on this island," Gideon growled, his hand on the hilt of his sword. "If we had predicted an attack on this place, our first priority should have been the safety of the _people_, not the safety of ourselves. To irresponsibly use a defense which would render us unable to fulfill our obligations as guardians is not only cowardly, it is an offense to everything we are and which we stand for." He turned his eyes to Nicholas, his expression conveying an equal mixture of anger and sadness. "Why would you betray us like this? I thought you better than such, Nicholas."

Nicholas. Not "old friend". Nicholas. The impact of that alone was like a punch in the gut. Nicholas flinched back from his friend, wrapping his hand around the hilt of one of his own blades for comfort.

Harley began to growl. "Gideon, you little-"

Before he could finish his sentence, Sylvia had moved up to Gideon and slapped him.

Harley stood slack-jawed for a moment before grinning at the sylvan Shadow. "Sylvie, if we ever make it out of this, the two of us should bang."

"I don't sleep with _yokai." _Sylvia pursed her lips. "Anymore, anyway. And Gideon, you should be ashamed of yourself."

"You are taking the side of cowardice as well? I though you better than-" Gideon began.

"Can it." Ellen pursed her lips, still studying the island. "First, it's barely been a night since Nicholas activated the barrier spell. We haven't lost much time on the whole. Second, I'm detecting traces of a large-scale pervasive enchantment. I haven't analyzed its character yet but I believe the only reason we aren't affected by it is because of Nicholas's action there."

Harley nodded. "Ladies have it right, Gideon. We're not much good to anyone if whatever wrecked the island wrecks us too."

Gideon's anger faded, and the tiefling released his sword's hilt. "I... I apologize." He looked at the surface of the island. "Nicholas, I'm sorry. When I saw what had happened I lost my temper and-"

"It's fine." Nicholas's words were a bit more curt than he had intended them to be, but he made no effort to repeat himself. "I never intended that spell to be more than a temporary defense. The longest it's ever maintained itself for was an hour. Until now, that is."

Another scream split the air.

"We should go." Gideon roused himself, walking towards the edge of the boat's deck and the docks. "There are survivors to find."

"Hold up." Ellen raised a hand. "I'm technically still field commander. We're not going in there blind." She stepped forward, motioning for the rest of the group to listen. "Our original field positions were intended to serve our goal of gathering information. They're no good to us now. As of right now, we're breaking up into the following groups- Harley, you're not going to be much for search and rescue. I want you to find whoever was responsible for setting up this barrier and releasing whatever trapped us in Nicholas's spell earlier and deal with them."

Harley grinned. "You're not half-bad, Roman."

"I assure you, I'm pure evil." Ellen watched as Harley leaped over the prow of the ship, landing on the docks and racing towards the center of the island. "Gideon, Sylvia- you two should follow him at a distance. Search and rescue is your number one priority, but make sure that Harley doesn't get over-enthusiastic and beat a potential source of information into a bloody pulp before we can get him to talk."

"While I would have preferred you phrase the second part of this assignment a bit less dubiously, I accept and understand... and apologize once again for my earlier behavior." Gideon leaped from the ship as well, his landing more graceful if less dynamic than Harley's, and began running after the other Chaser.

Sylvia cracked her knuckles. "Going to be interesting, going on an assignment where my job isn't to play Spook," she mused before vaulting after Gideon. As she landed, her skin and body went through a few subtle changes- her muscle mass rippling to adjust itself to what would be required to keep pace with Gideon and Harley, and her skin tones changing to a mottled brown and green which would camouflage her when she grew near the forest.

Nicholas raised an eyebrow. "Am I to join them?"

"You're with me." Ellen walked to the edge of the boat. "We may be in an emergency situation, but our mission's core goal hasn't changed- it's possible that there's nothing we can do about whatever just happened here, so we should make it our goal to find a way to deactivate the barrier and alert Shadowchasers HQ as soon as possible. With any luck we'll have help from the outside the moment they notice we aren't checking in with routine communications. We're also going to be searching for whatever caused the spike which got us assigned to visit here in the first place, and what its connections to the incident are. I would do it myself but..." she gestured to her dress. "Quite frankly, I'm no combat expert, and I could use a defense specialist."

Nicholas frowned. "I don't like it."

Ellen sighed, exasperated. "Gideon can take care of himself. You don't have to follow him everywhere, you know."

"I-I assure you, that's not what I was thinking!" Even as he spoke, Nicholas felt his cheeks flush. "It's just that field assignments where Gideon and I are both assigned, we generally work as a team, and I want to ensure total efficiency-"

"Nicholas, you're protesting too much. We're in a danger zone here, and you need to keep on your guard." Ellen tapped her scanner and looked to the left and right, more readings blinking past. "I noticed something while I was conducting an analysis of the barrier spell around the island's perimeter. It appears to have multiple points of origin."

"So more than one accomplished caster," Nicholas mused as he placed a hand on the hilt of his sword. "But what about that makes our situation more dangerous?"

"I believe one of those points of origin is nearby."

_Clap._

_Clap._

_Clap._

"You catch on quickly, Chaser."

Nicholas whirled, bringing out one of his short-swords in a quick, horizontal slash. His blow was intercepted by a much longer blade- this one curved, and wider at the top. Biting his lip, he shifted his footing and pushed forward, forcing his opponent back a step, and unsheathed his second blade. In the next instant he stepped between the attacker and Ellen, intercepting yet another deathblow. "Who on earth are you?"

The attacker leaped back, allowing Nicholas time to take in his appearance for a few more moments-

No. _Her _appearance. Their attacker was a woman with short, red hair, about Ellen's age, dressed in loose, white robes and a white hood. Her scimitar shone with unearthly energy as she lunged again, Nicholas barely catching the attack. With a grunt of exertion, he pushed upward with his swords, causing her to stumble, and kicked out into her stomach, only for her to dance out of the way. "I'm impressed. Your swordplay is commendable," the woman said, her voice void of any trace of malice.

"Tch," Ellen muttered, reading the feed-out from her scanner. "Nicholas, she's not one of the barrier sources. She's probably just someone who got left behind by whoever did this, to report on our movements. We need to get rid of her and move on."

Twirling her scimitar, the woman gave Ellen a coy grin. "Such confidence! But I assure you, I won't be removed so easily, even by such a powerful bodyguard." The woman sighed. "We had not expected a barrier capable of withstanding our enchantment so perfectly. I'm afraid you and your friends will simply have to die- if you had allowed the magic through, you could have shared in the fate of the islanders."

"In the fate of-" the words clicked suddenly. Nicholas raised his blades, still on the defensive, as he positioned himself between Ellen and their attacker. "What did you do to them?"

"Opened them. Made them part of a higher purpose." The woman's smile seemed predatory, and Nicholas inadvertently retreated a step. "They are the cup of destruction from which the Glorious One drinks, the meal which provides him with sustenance, the healing balm which soothes his pain and shall guide him back to the cosmos!"

"Nicholas. She's a cultist. We're not going to get any reason from her." Ellen stepped forward. "Do whatever you need to go get her out of the way. This is officially a life or death situation, not just for us but for everyone here."

"You'll find it's far too late for 'everyone'," The woman taunted, raising her blade. "And poor, misguided fools- did you really think I would be here alone? Have you not wondered what happened to your crew?"

"The crew-" Nicholas attempted to turn his body, but his attempts to glance toward the ship's berth were interrupted by the woman's next attack, her blade once again clashing with his. A bead of sweat ran down his brow as he raised his voice. "_Blessed remains, heed my words and bind the lawless!"_

The magic circle he had laid before stirred, returning to the cloud of silver powder it had once been, and snaked itself around the feet of the cultist before returning to its previous shape. Nicholas shouted again, giving one last push back against his attacker for good measure. "_Silver Coffin!_"

A wall of holy light sprang up, and the woman gave a cry of alarm as it encircled her, trapping her within Nicholas's circle. Wiping a hand across his brow, Nicholas turned back to Ellen. "That should hold her for-"

The words died away on his mouth as he saw the crew. Or what was left of them at any rate.

He hadn't had much time to get to know the crew, but he had a rough estimate of the number of trained sailors who had joined them. He was rather glad that this was only about half of them, because he didn't think he wanted to see what was left of the others.

They were horrifying. He would have compared them to zombies, but the zombies he had met, rotting skin aside, had been a rather pitiful bunch as opposed to disgusting. The crew were revolting. The light of life was still in their eyes, but their faces were twisted into hideous expressions and grimaces, and the wounds- dear God, the wounds- bite marks, marks where they had been scratched and torn and mangled by someone or something until skin had broken and blood streamed through freely. They were barely recognizable as human.

It fell into place at that moment. Nicholas took a step back, his swords still at the ready. "She didn't do this to them- the enchantment- they-"

"They did it to themselves," Ellen nodded, moving away from the steadily advancing crew herself. "I'm guessing some kind of indiscriminate enchantment or curse, which causes the affected to attack everyone and everything around them. Our little 'guest' must have used some kind of command switch to get them to target us."

"I don't have enough celestial silver on me for a second barrier," Nicholas warned as an old man who he assumed was the captain lunged at him. He sidestepped, delivering a punishing slash to the man through pure fighting instinct and sending him to the ground. In the same moment, he made a small correction to his assessment.

Not "was". "Had Been". That man "had been" the captain. Aside from the woman who had attacked them, there were only two humans left on this boat.

Everyone else had been transformed into a brute animal.

It wasn't completely accurate, he was sure. But it was the only way he was going to be able to stomach what he was about to do next.

There was a cracking sound behind him in that instant. Nicholas looked back in horror as the barrier he had erected fell to pieces, revealing a very upset assassin- whose scimitar shone with an unearthly light. "_May your despair and rage feed the Glorious One! May the Light purge your unworthy forms from __this planet!" _she hissed, swinging her blade. "_Purgepurgepurge-"_

There was a flash of light, and the remains of the crew and the assassin both let up an animal howl as Ellen chose that moment to detonate a small flashbang.

Nicholas groaned as she pulled him aside. "Listen to me," Ellen murmured. "Do not worry about the crew. I am going to take care of them. Focus on holding our would-be killer over there. Do whatever you can to immobilize her for a period of... let's say, at least twenty-minutes or so. I'm going to see if there's a way to turn the spell off."

Nicholas gave a mute nod, pain still lancing through his skull as he recovered from the effects of the flashbang. His only solace was that it would take the other affected parties at least as long to recover their vision. Maybe longer for the crew, as divorced from rational thought as they were. "Give me one moment." Grabbing a gem from the inside of his coat, he gripped it, praying that a communication sent to someone _within_ the barrier wouldn't be blocked. "I'm warning Gideon."

Ellen shook her head. "I think he already knows."

-TTTTTTTTTT-

"I don't believe it," Gideon muttered as he evaded the wild clutches of a half-elf.

No.

What had once been a half-elf. She might have been quite beautiful in life, too. Now her body was covered in wounds, missing flesh, missing teeth- he could sense vitality still, but her mind had fled long ago and her body was moving on pure, base instinct.

There was only one choice.

The tiefling drew his blade and in three fluid motions struck. The half-elf collapsed to the ground, three red lines traced across her body.

Gideon whirled on his heels as he heard a cracking sound from behind him, only to relax as he saw Sylvia drop what had once been a human to the ground, its neck at a crazy angle. "You didn't kill her," she noted, pointing to the once-elf. "If you don't finish them off, they just get up and start attacking again in a few hours. Spark of life or not, these guys are no better than zombies."

"Zombies can't be easily raised," Gideon replied, shaking his head. "These people are still alive. I believe it is my duty as a Shadowchaser to keep them as such if there is even a remote possibility of disenchanting them. Under the circumstances I will not act to stay your hand, however."

"Appreciated," Sylvia noted as she looked toward the horizon. "Harley couldn't have predicted this, could he?"

Gideon whirled, his blade flashing once. Sylvia blinked as the elf who had risen up behind her collapsed, a spurt of blood flying from his body as he writhed in pain. "Thanks."

"Think nothing of it." Gideon cleaned his blade on the hem of his armored uniform's cape before sheathing it. "I severed a few tendons with that strike. He won't be able to stand again for a while. We should go now, to where Harley Rowan is. I have some things I wish to ask him."

Sylvia lunged forward, knocking Gideon to the ground. The tiefling coughed as wind escaped his lungs.

The elf behind the two had managed to pull himself to his knees when three blades of light pierced his body, slicing him into three pieces.

"Pity. I missed." The speaker clicked his tongue in disappointment. Gideon wheezed, staggering upright along with Sylvia. As his vision cleared he managed to get a decent look at their attacker. The man was rather diminutive, dressed in white robes, and holding a book aloft. His graying hair and spectacles would have left most with the impression that he was little more than some old preacher, lost on his way to a revival, particularly given the book he held in his hand. Gideon looked at him and sized up his build, and knew better.

The man lifted his hand, and the book began to shine. "_Light, pierce the darkness!"_

The book gleamed with white, blinding energy. In the next instant, Gideon had thrown himself to the ground. He didn't have time to look behind him and confirm Sylvia was alright. The spears of white light came within a hair's breadth of slicing through him, reducing a tree behind the tiefling to so much kindling.

The man licked his lips. "Light be praised."

Sylvia grimaced, biting her thumb hard enough to draw blood. Reaching out, she grasped the stem of a nearby flower. "I offer this unto you," she grunted. "Grant me your boon... _blood-stained petals."_

The code word triggered the magic which flowed through every drop of Sylvia's shadow-touched blood, trickling through her bloody thumb into the black-petaled flower she had smeared it over. The ground rumbled with power, and the attacker, about to launch another assault, was taken aback as his book was torn to pieces by a thorn-covered vine which leaped from the ground. "Gideon, now!" Sylvia shouted, her grip on the flower firm as she directed the movements of the vine. "Go on ahead!"

The man scowled, leaping back. "...I had hoped to give you a swift end." Blades materialized in his hands- twin swords, every inch of them burning with a light that hurt to look at. "Why do you refuse my gift?"

Gideon drew his blade. "Sylvia... the one to go ahead should be you," he announced, stepping between her and their attacker. "He is a swordsman. There's no enemy better suited for me. Run ahead and rendezvous with Harley."

Sylvia bit her lip. "Dammit, Gideon! You can't expect a normal fight from this-"

She twisted her body just in time to avoid a blow which shook the ground underneath her. There was a small explosion as a patch of soil disappeared in a bubble of heat and light, leaving only a bare crater in its place, large enough that it would have reached Sylvia's knees had she jumped in. Their new attacker, a gigantic, hooded figure wearing the same robes as the first, held up two hands- revealing no weapon within them. "Tch..." she muttered, pulling back on her vine whip and retracting it into her hands as she pulled it out of the way of the oncoming blade-wielder's attack, focusing on the opponent in front of her instead.

The figure's hood fell back, revealing the scarred and weather-beaten face of an old man. "_Light, cover the world,"_ he intoned, his hands crackling with the same energy which had vaporized the ground before.

Sylvia moved back-to-back with Gideon. "Any ideas?"

Gideon nodded, his expression grim. "Survive."

"I like that one."

The acolytes of the light charged.

TTTTTTTTTTTTTT

"Pfeh."

Harley spat blood.

The arms which had been wrapped around him finally went limp, as the screaming remains of what had been a human male before let go of his body. The chunk of flesh missing from his upper shoulder had apparently been enough to nearly sever the limb. With a single strike, Harley broke the man's neck and allowed him to tumble to the ground. The Shadowchaser took a moment to kneel down and look the man over.

"...Family man probably. Kids. Wife. Had 'em at any rate."

He glanced over at the bungalow a few yards away, and the child-sized hand he had seen through the door's frame, lying prone on the ground before he had been attacked. "Pfeh."

Harley spat again to get the rest of the blood out of his mouth, flexed his arms to make sure he hadn't sustained any injuries, and took a bracing shot of the alcohol in his hip flask. Drinking on the job wasn't strictly allowed by Shadowchasers code, but this was not an occasion he intended to face without a little southern comfort.

"Ah. One of the ones who made it through our net."

Harley was about to turn to face the source of the voice when he staggered, a sharp pain cutting through his abdomen. He knew the blade of the knife was unusually wide and tapered to a sharp point without looking, it was probably shaped more like a bayonet than a standard blade. How it had ended up jutting through his stomach like that he had no idea.

"Don't bother turning. The Light is already victorious here, Shadowchaser. Simply stay put, and allow it to finish its work. It will hurt less."

The voice was coming closer, and by now Harley's fighting instincts were engaged again. Engaged enough that he could tell that he had moments, seconds, to react to the next strike. He clenched his teeth and grabbed the handle of the knife that had pierced him, wrenching it out of his body with a grunt, and whirled to intercept the next strike. The blood-soaked blade in his hands struck a fresh one, knocking it out of the air before it could skewer him through the back of the neck. Harley exhaled, doing his best to ignore the pain and the blood leaking from his freshly-minted abdominal wound.

His attacker, now that he had a decent look at him, took Harley by surprise. The man was relatively young- perhaps in his early twenties- and his tousled blond hair and face looked remarkably innocent in comparison to Harley's own. If it weren't for the cassock robe and the blades he carried, Harley would have assumed he was the dead man's son. Certainly young enough.

Harley took a moment to curse the hole in his stomach as his enemy advanced.

"I did not intend to dispatch you today, Shadowchaser- in truth, your presence on this island matters very little when the Glorious One is so close to his awakening." The fervor in the young man's voice was unmistakable and chilling. "The weak feed on the weak and become food for the strong, the false shapes of the world fall into ruin and in the destruction of this place of emptiness the all-encompassing light is revealed unto us, _amen and amen, may the Light Shine Down!"_

Harley shielded his eyes as a column of light erupted around his assailant. He couldn't tell if the light had burst from the ground and was climbing into the sky or the other way round, but his instincts told him everything he might need to know about it for the foreseeable future. _Danger. Get away._

Harley took a quick swig from his hip flask, feeling the sacred drink inside wash through his body and the fighting spirit it awakened in him spurring his regeneration. With a roar he charged straight towards the column of light, bayonet in his hand.

It hurt. More than he had imagined it would. The light seared his flesh, his nerves screamed in agony, his thoughts were nothing but a massive chain of reactions to pain. Then he felt the blade in his hand bite through flesh and bone, and it gave him the impetus he needed to push forward. Harley gasped as he and the young man tumbled out of the opposite side of the column of light, which faded behind them. Harley made a point of twisting the bayonet as deeply as he could as he bore the man to the ground- he hurt too much to tell where the strike had actually hit. May as well make it count.

He stumbled to his feet, unceremoniously ripping the bayonet from the man's body in the process. Now that his vision was clearing and the burn marks along his skin were healing, his drink still doing its work, he could see that he had managed- through sheer luck- to spear the priest through the heart. Harley tossed his weapon aside, breathing heavily. He gave the corpse a vicious kick to the ribs, sending it rolling several feet away. "Bastard."

The corpse's lips, improbably, moved. "_Light-"_

Harley snarled and lunged forward.

A moment too late.

"_-Shine Down!"_

Harley leaped back, screaming in frustration as another column of light burst into existence around his enemy's form. When it cleared, the priest was standing again, dusting his body off. The only evidence of the fatal wound Harley had inflicted was a ragged hole in the priest's robes. "Commendable, Shadowchaser. I had thought you worth nothing but destruction, but it is possible you will one day make an excellent servant for the Glorious One," the man said, his voice all smiles and sunshine.

Harley, still too enraged to form a coherent sentence, responded by flipping the man the bird.

"Of course, that does not preclude punishments for insolence," the man said slowly, producing two more bayonet knives from his sleeves. "In the name of the Light and its Servant, the Glorious One, I, Thaddeus Kleig, will be more than happy to-"

The animal howl that split the air interrupted Thaddeus and caused Harley to turn in shock.

"...Hmph. I'm afraid I will have to attend to you later." Thaddeus sneered as he returned his blades to his sleeves. "The Light has delivered a far more promising being to me." With an astounding agility, he leaped away from Harley, away from the more settled portion of Pleasureland and into the forest ahead.

Harley howled in frustration before staggering to his knee, the pain of what he had just endured catching up with him again.

Not that. He couldn't let those bastards anywhere near _that_ if they were who he thought they were.

Pulling himself to his feet again, Harley gave chase.

TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT

Nicholas brought up his blades, blocking yet another strike from the assassin who had been left on board. He decided to review the pros and cons of the situation in his mind as he did his best to hold her blades back.

The good news was that his training with Gideon had paid off considerably. So far neither he nor Ellen was sliced into pieces. And damned if Ellen's collection of noisemakers and flashbangs was doing a fine job of distracting what was left of the crew, even if she seemed more concerned with trying to hug her stuffed unicorn.

The bad news was that he was still losing.

Of all the magical abilities for an enemy to possess, it had to be the ability to break his barriers. He cursed the fact that the _silver storm_ required the caster to remain in the circle. If it weren't for that, he could have bound her and-

The scimitar came out of nowhere, and Nicholas barely rolled out of the way of the blow. There. Dodged. Now counter and-

She wasn't in front of him anymore.

The assassin had a madwoman's grin as she lunged towards Ellen's unprotected back, her scimitar pulled back and ready to slash.

Time stood still.

For Nicholas, the next moment was a blur. He dropped his blades, allowing them to clatter to the ground, and reached into his coat, grabbing his last talisman.

"_I invoke the ancient rite! Duel!"_

The silver circle Nicholas had traced on the floor earlier flowed again, reshaping its boundaries so that it included Nicholas himself and the blade-wielding cultist. A wall of light burst from its edges, intercepting her blade's swing.

Ellen turned as her attacker cursed, beating against the walls Nicholas had created again and again. "Why didn't you do this before?"

Nicholas raised his arm, silver particles shimmering as they reshaped themselves into a gauntlet for his left arm- a gauntlet which sprouted five, long wings and produced a space for a deck. With his right hand, he removed the talisman he had used to cast the spell.

The duel monsters cards resting in his hands glowed with a faint energy as he inserted them into the duel disk's deck slot.

"I didn't do this earlier because I was hoping to avoid it. This barrier is different than my normal ones."

The cultist whirled, wild-eyed, and slashed at Nicholas- only to be repulsed by an invisible barrier. "_PURGE PURGE PURGE!" _she screamed, her blade tracing paths of light through the air only to rebound away from its intended target.

"You won't be able to undo the barrier that way, so you had best give it up," Nicholas warned, raising his duel disk. "This barrier is hardly standard Shadowchasers procedure. I had to go outside of the normal curriculum to learn it... it binds both the caster and target into a closed space. Only one is allowed to leave unscathed."

"...A game of darkness." A smile spread across the girl's lips as she tossed her scimitar into the air. The blade turned end over end before transforming itself into a gold and silver duel disk, shaped not unlike Nicholas's own. Deftly catching the device on her right arm, the woman waved her hand producing a deck in a flourish of light, and inserted it. "The Glorious One is also capable of such. And as his emissary I, Tara Rae, will gladly accept your challenge."

Nicholas's deck whirred as the automatic shuffler within his duel disk randomized it. Drawing five cards, he looked his opponent in the eye. "You have no choice."

Ellen nodded with approval at the goings-on behind her. "Interesting spell there, Nicholas. I'll have to figure out how to play with that one myself. In the meantime..."

The crew had finally recovered from her latest assault, and were lurching towards Ellen. She searched about the folds of her skirt, disappointed. "Pfeh. There's my last flashbang." With a sigh, she held up her stuffed unicorn and looked it in its adorable, button-black eyes. "Princess, I know you're not fully recharged yet, but I think we're officially out of options."

One of the crew members charged. Ellen's palm strike caught him in his solar plexus and sent him staggering backwards. Raising her unicorn toward the sky, Ellen closed her eyes and spoke.

"Star Driver... _set up."_

The black button eyes of the unicorn lit up with an unearthly blue light. Nicholas's jaw dropped. "What-"

In the next instant, a wave of violet light had covered Ellen's body, obscuring her from Nicholas's view. To his surprise, angelic music seemed to emanate from the center of the light for a few minutes before finally fading along with the light itself and revealing-

Ellen's dress had completely transformed. Her chest and shoulders were now protected by a magical breastplate, while her hands were encased in gauntlets rather than gloves. Her shoes had transitioned into armored greaves. Rather than a stuffed unicorn, she now carried a long, metal staff tipped with a magical crystal encased within a spiraling structure meant to resemble her stuffed animal's horn. The folds of the dress themselves seemed more resilient, more powerful.

Ellen slammed the end of her staff against the boards of the ship, holding out her hand towards the now-cowed crew. "Scanner, log data. First field test of anti-supernatural weapons system, _Star Driver- Princess Model_, initiate," she intoned, leveling her staff so that its crystal pointed towards her attackers. "Begin test_... now."_

The staff spoke. [Struggle Capture]

A net of violet light expanded from its surface, capturing the entire crew at once. With a grunt, Ellen heaved the group into the air, wielding them at the end of her staff like a massive flail, spun them over her head several times, and released the net- launching them straight into the ocean, several hundred feet away. Satisfied, she turned back toward Nicholas, who was watching her with rapt amazement. "Nicholas. Eyes on the duel."

"Indeed." Tara Rae pursed her lips, drawing. "Since you seem to be so distracted, the first turn belongs to me."

_DUEL!_

_Tara Rae-_

_Hand- 6_

_Monsters: (None)_

_S/T: (None)_

_Life Points: 8000_

The cultist lifted a green-bordered card into the air. "Let the blessings of the Glorious One shine upon us! The spell card, Charge of the Light Brigade, allows me to search my deck for any level four or lower 'Lightsworn' monster and add it to my hand!" As she spoke, a white wolf pup with an ornate, gold headpiece leaped into the air, howling. "Come to my side, Jain, Lightsworn Paladin!"

A young, fair-haired knight dressed in silver armor with a red cape briefly appeared before both his image and the wolf's dissolved, transforming into a single card in Tara's hand.

Nicholas curled his lips into a frown. "Charge of the Light Brigade requires you to send three cards from the top of your deck to the graveyard after its resolution as a cost."

"A cost I _welcome._ It is only right that the chosen should give of themselves for the sake of the Light." Tara slipped the top three cards of her deck into her graveyard slot, her eyes lighting up with excitement as one of them entered. "And now, warrior of light, make your entrance! I normal summon the Jain I called from the deck!"

A bright yellow summoning circle opened in front of Tara, and the fair-haired knight rose up from it, drawing a silver blade. The knight slashed the air several times with it, weaving an ornate pattern of bladework, before posing. (1800/1200)

A single, holographic card back appeared behind the summoned Jain as Tara slipped a card into her duel disk. "After setting this, my turn ends- and at this time, the glorious light's tithe is due. Due to Jain's effect, the top two cards of my deck are sent to the graveyard!" Tara held the two cards up, revealing one with an orange border, and one with a green one, before sliding both into her graveyard slot. "But the Glorious One sees the struggles of those who wish to follow the light, and it does not forsake them. When the equip spell card Lightsworn Sabre is sent to the graveyard, I can equip it to any face-up 'Lightsworn' monster I control. Jain, take hold of the power granted to you by the light!"

The spell card ejected itself from Tara's graveyard, automatically equipping itself to the target she had indicated. Jain's blade began to gleam with an inner light before transforming into a thinner, more pointed blade of blue light with an ornate cross-guard. "The equipped monster will have its attack points raised by seven hundred!" (2500/1200)

Nicholas sized up the situation and took a deep breath. He was certain he had seen Judgment Dragon go to the graveyard along with Lightsworn Sabre- so why was this 'Tara' so unbothered by it? Normally placing one's ace monster in a place where it can't be easily reached is a bad idea.

He shook his head. Now was not the time for doubt.

"My turn. Draw!"

_Nicholas-_

_Hand- 6_

_Monsters- (None)_

_S/T- (None)_

_Life Points- 8000_

Nicholas selected one of his cards and held it over his head momentarily, before placing it on his duel disk. "I summon the fairy-type monster Bountiful Artemis in attack position!" In front of him, shards of light coalesced into a strange form- a white and green synthetic being which seemed more machine than angel, whose wings unfolded from its body like a shell and whose lower body tapered to a point instead of resolving into legs. (1600/1700)

"Bountiful Artemis is a light-attribute fairy, and since it is weaker than the least powerful monster you control, the summoning conditions of my next card are met." Nicholas snapped his fingers as a dark summoning circle opened beside Artemis and a new creature burst out- a giggling, impish figure with bright purple skin dressed in a harlequin's uniform and fool's cap, complete with fake angel wings. "I special summon Fool of the Fae Courts, Goodfellow!" (800/1600)

Tara sneered. "Struggle all you wish. Your monsters are useless before the majesty of the Glorious One!" As if answering her words, Jain raised his blade to challenge both enemies. Goodfellow took the opportunity to blow him a raspberry.

Nicholas steeled himself. "I have no doubt that if whatever force you serve is familiar with this ritual, you possess powerful monsters. But I'm afraid that under the circumstances, I can't simply hand this duel over to you. Goodfellow, activate your monster effect! _Crowning of Fools!"_

Goodfellow leaped into the air, excited, and clapped his stubby little hands together as he swooped down towards Jain. The paladin attempted to slice the fairy in two with his blade, only for the sprite to zip behind him- and, quite suddenly, produce a massive fake donkey's head and jam it over Jain's. The paladin tottered back and forth, blinded by the mask, as Nicholas's monster returned to his side. "When Goodfellow is special summoned successfully, I can target one monster you control. From now on, when I attack with a Fairy-type monster, I can change that monster's battle position!"

Tara snarled. "What?"

"Bountiful Artemis, attack Jain! _Shining Sublimation!" _Nicholas stretched out his arm as his monster began to rise into the air, an aura of light gathering around its body. "And by the effect of Goodfellow, I change Jain to defense position!"

The Paladin staggered about as he tried desperately to remove the donkey's head from his own, only to fall to his knees and drop his sword. At the same time, Artemis unleashed a massive burst of energy which swept toward the enemy monster. (1600 Atk. vs. 1200 Def)

Tara Rae's arm swept up at the same time as the set card on her field a glyph of energy bursting into the air and intercepting Artemis's attack. "Those who walk in the Light are protected by it. Lightsworn Barrier sends the top two cards of my deck to the graveyard, defending a face-up Lightsworn monster from your attack." As she spoke, the burst of energy Artemis had unleashed scattered and dissipated into the air, leaving Jain unscathed as he finally succeeded in removing his headgear.

"Tch." Nicholas placed a final card in his duel disk. "I'll set this, and my turn ends."

Tara Rae's eyes lit up with anticipation. "In that case, allow me to continue. My turn, draw!"

_Tara Rae-_

_Hand- 5_

_Monsters- Jain, Lightsworn Paladin (2500 (w/equip)/1200)_

_S/T- Lightsworn Barrier, Lightsworn Sabre (equipped to Jain)_

_Life Points- 8000_

"Jain returns to attack position," Tara Rae declared as she stared at Nicholas's monsters hungrily. "And I activate the spell card, Solar Recharge! By offering Wulf, Lightsworn Beast from my hand I draw two cards from my deck, then send the top two cards of my deck to the graveyard." As she slipped the cards into the graveyard, her face lit up. "And now, you will know the pain of those who follow the light! I activate the effect of Lightsworn Sabre- when sent from the deck to the graveyard, I can immediately equip it to a Lightsworn monster. I equip Jain with a second Lightsworn Sabre!"

Tara's warrior tossed his shield into the air, letting it unceremoniously fall to the ground behind him and dissolve. A second thin blade of light formed itself in his left hand, and he crossed the two, preparing for combat in earnest. (3200/1200)

"I'm not done! Heed my command and come forth- Garroth, Lightsworn Warrior!" The air rippled as a new warrior appeared next to Jain- a far bulkier fighter dressed in the same white and gold which Jain wore- though he lacked any armor to cover his abdomen. Hefting his halberd, the blue-haired fighter roared out a challenge towards Nicholas's monsters, causing Goodfellow to squeak in horror and dive behind Artemis. (1850/1300)

"Are you prepared, Shadowchaser? I will show you how a true warrior of the Glorious One conducts battle! Jain, attack his Fool of the Fae Court! _Purging Blade!"_

As Jain leaped into the air, twin blades held high, Goodfellow continued to cower behind Artemis. Tara's voice rang out. "When Jain attacks, he immediately gains three hundred attack points for that battle!" (3500/1200)

Nicholas snapped his fingers just as the blade was about to slice through his unfortunate fairy. "Counter Trap card, activate. Negate Attack!" In an instant a burst of force erupted between the two monsters and separated them. "This card negates an enemy's attack and immediately ends the battle phase."

Tara Rae snarled as her monsters were both forced backward, winded. "_You will be purged!"_

Nicholas smirked, adjusting his glasses. "I believe that is to be _your _fate, Tara Rae."

"You dare?"

"The effect of Bountiful Artemis allows me to immediately draw a card as part of the chain when my counter trap resolves," Nicholas continued, ignoring his opponent's glare. As soon as he saw its identity, a grin split his face. "And now, I activate the effect of a monster in my hand. When one of my counter traps resolves, I can summon this monster by offering every face-up monster I control as a tribute. I release Bountiful Artemis and Goodfellow!"

Goodfellow took the opportunity to blow one last raspberry from atop the ever-stoic Bountiful Artemis's shoulders as both monsters transformed into spheres of light which rippled with the colors of the aurora. The twin spheres launched themselves into the air with a spiral of light tracing their paths before they sank into the ground and released a blinding surge of light. Nicholas raised one of his hands into the air as a massive shadow began to appear in the light behind him. "The decree of the law is absolute! By your hand, enforce judgment upon the wicked! Stand forward!"

The light faded and the shadow behind Nicholas resolved itself into a definite shape- a massive, purple-armored synthetic angel, infinitely more majestic than Artemis, crystals jutting from its lower body and a green staff clutched in its hands. "Voltanis the Adjudicator!" (2800/1400)

Tara Rae flinched backward, her expression for the first time uncertain.

Nicholas snapped once more as Voltanis slowly began to raise his staff into the air. "When Voltanis the Adjudicator is special summoned by his own effect, I can destroy a number of cards you control equal to the number of fairy-type monsters used to summon him. Since I used two, I can destroy two of your cards." Translucent images of Goodfellow and Artemis appeared to either side of Nicholas, the former laughing uproariously, before vanishing. "I can think of no better targets than your monsters. Voltanis, exact judgment on Jain, Lightsworn Paladin and Garoth, Lightsworn Warrior! _Celestial Conviction!"_

Voltanis lowered his staff to the ground, releasing a shockwave of light which tore across the battlefield. Nicholas and Tara Rae both lifted their arms to shield themselves from the force of the blow as Jain and Garoth dropped to their knees and were consumed in a wave of holy light. Tara staggered backward, dazed from the impact. "Y-you- the Glorious One's servants- to presume to convict them..." her face was a mask of rage. "I will _purge you personally_."

"I'll take that as a declaration of end of turn," Nicholas responded, his expression calm as he drew for his own.

_Nicholas-_

_Hand- 4_

_Monsters- Voltanis the Adjudicator (2800/1400)_

_S/T- (None)_

_Life Points- 8000_

Nicholas made a show of perusing the contents of his hand, looking for his next card. "Tara Rae. Let me ask you, do you know what you have done?"

Tara Rae's only reaction was to grit her teeth and glare at Nicholas.

"I thought not." Nicholas's expression darkened as he held up his next card. "Let me explain things for you. In the service of whatever force you worship you have become complicit in the murder of an unknown number of persons, potentially representing the entire civilian population of this island, criminal or innocent. In fact you have done worse, by directly assisting in the use of an unknown enchantment which is causing them to attack and devour each other indiscriminately. You have personally attacked two Shadowchasers sent to this island, with the intent of murdering them as well. And worse than that? You and your fellow worshipers of this 'Glorious One' have put my oldest and closest friend in danger."

Tara Rae opened her mouth to retort, and closed it just as suddenly, staring at Nicholas. "What..."

TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT

Outside the barrier created by Nicholas's duel, Ellen frowned as she examined the two through her scanner's lens. "Nicholas," she muttered, "what on earth have you been experimenting with?"

Even as she spoke the formerly-transparent barrier began to darken, cloaking everything inside its boundary in shadow.

TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT

Nicholas seemed oblivious to the changes surrounding him- in his barrier or himself. "That last one is important, Tara Rae. You see, I don't _have_ many friends at all. The cost of genius. I would give anything to protect this friend of mine. And I will also _do_ anything I deem necessary." He placed his next card on the duel disk with a flourish. "Even if it means taking your life. I summon Unseelie Shaper!"

Nicholas's monster was rather hard to discern the shape of- its body was concealed by a bulky, black cloak and its face was hidden by a grinning, white mask. Two black wings poked through the back of its cloak and two slender, dark arms slipped through, but there was a sense of dishonesty about both features- a nagging sensation that they were false. (0/0)

"When Unseelie Shaper is summoned successfully, I can tribute it to special summon a level four Fairy-type monster from my hand or graveyard." Nicholas dismissed his monster with a flourish. "I release Unseelie Shaper! Return to my side, Bountiful Artemis!" The shape-shifter reached up with one arm to remove its mask, while the other grasped its cape. In one, fluid motion the creature pulled off both, revealing the familiar form of Artemis beneath. (1600/1700)

Nicholas smirked. "Lightsworn Barrier can't activate its effect if you have no Lightsworn monsters to defend, correct? If that is the case, I believe you're wide open. Artemis! Voltanis! Show no mercy- attack her life points directly with _Shining Sublimation!"_

Tara Rae lifted up her hands to defend herself as both of Nicholas's monsters charged and released a blinding ray of energy. The force of the attack drove her against the wall of the barrier, and she slumped to the ground like a rag doll. (8000- 2800 – 1600 = 3600)

"I set one card. My turn ends." Nicholas coldly regarded the injured cultist. "If you surrender now, the penalty will be relatively painless."

Tara Rae stood up slowly, her body trembling. "Heh..."

Nicholas stepped backward in shock as an aura of white light gathered around her. "What-"

"Eheheh. Ehehehhehehehahaheheheheheaheieeahahheheheahahahah ahAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAeEHEHEHAHAHAE-"

The wild laughter caused Nicholas to clap his hands to his ears as he winced.

"The Glorious One warned us about those like you- those whose hearts are dyed by the darkness and shadows of this world! Once that darkness is purged, you will become a _worthy_ servant of the Glorious One, and honor will fall upon my head for being the one to claim you for his name! My turn, draw!"

_Tara Rae-_

_Hand- 5_

_Monsters (None)_

_S/T- Lightsworn Barrier_

_Life Points- 3600_

Tara Rae selected one of the cards in her hand. "During our battle so far, I have sent nine cards to the graveyard through the effects of Lightsworn cards. Together with the fallen Jain and Garoth, those nine cards contained five unique Light attribute monsters. Now, fallen servants of the Light, offer yourselves up!"

Translucent images of each monster appeared behind Tara Rae as she named them, one by one. "Jain, Lightsworn Paladin! Garoth, Lightsworn Warrior! Wulf, Lightsworn Beast! Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner! Judgment Dragon! Your spirits will gather now and create a gate to the world of Glory!" The five images transformed into spheres of light which launched themselves into the air, tracing a glowing pentagram. "Come forth from within, great Servant of the Light! Purge all which hides itself from the world!"

The murky darkness which had surrounded the inside of Nicholas's barrier shattered as if it were a pane of glass, revealing the outside world one more. No sooner had this happened than the barrier began to fill with a gleaming light which obscured all else.

A blue and white dragon's head emerged from the pentagram, four golden horns gleaming as it roared in challenge. Its claws slowly emerged, then its chest, belly, and tail. At last, the creature was revealed.

Nicholas's breath caught in his throat as he looked from the monster to its summoner. Tara Rae's eyes had completely whited out, along with her previously-red hair. "Bring this sinner to the Light with your strength! _Lightray Diabolos!"_

The dragon's cry split the air. (2800/1000)

**To Be Continued**

TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT

**Shadowchasers Personnel Profile-**

_**Nicholas Mumford, "Nicholas Silvertongue"**_

**Active Period- **20 years Pre-Zero Reverse- ?

**Specialties- **Infernal Law, Barrier Magic, Proficient with Blades, Archive Diving

**History With the Force**- Nicholas joined the Shadowchasers roughly ten years before the Pleasure Island incident. The circumstances of his recruitment were less-than-ideal, as the aware seventh son of a seventh son had just become an only child after witnessing his brothers being brutally slaughtered by a demon. The incident left Nicholas bitter and rather unwilling to completely trust the organization he pledged himself to, since they had utterly failed to respond to the incident due to a legal hang-up.

Nicholas, a legal student before entering the Shadowchasers, decided it would be pragmatic for him to study the unique laws governing the organization- particularly the Great Treaty. Upon examining it, he found several provisions which he interpreted as being too broad in their scope, and when he formally requested a council be called to amend them he was respectfully denied. Concluding, in part correctly, that this denial was due to his lack of prestige within the organization, Nicholas made the decision to aim for the highest possible seat- leader.

Nicholas's association with Gideon began when the two were both assigned to the Shadowchasers team of the city of Seattle. Nicholas has not explained why he trusts Gideon in particular, and the tiefling feels no _need_ to elaborate further. The rumors of their sexual escapades are, however, greatly exaggerated and completely false given that the two have never been intimate. Whether Nicholas would _welcome_ such a relationship is, of course, another story.

**Keywords- **_Barrier User, Celestial Silver, Infernal Law, Darkness of the Heart_

Nicholas is a combat pragmatist of sorts. His chosen branch of Shadow-combat martial arts mostly resembles Gideon's, but given the choice he rarely engages an opponent in hand-to-hand combat any longer than necessary. Instead he has focused on mastering the art of creating protective circles using celestial silver, a magical substance developed by the Shadowchasers which has a fluid form, memorizes any spell stored within it, and can instantly be used to construct complicated barriers and bindings simply by repeating a predetermined 'code phrase' or 'command word' rather than repeating the entire required incantation. In addition to this Nicholas also carries twin swords forged from holy silver rather than dwarven steel, which retain their shape and cutting power via enchantments, as well as carrying multiple smaller charms and defenses.

Nicholas's darkest secret as a member of the Shadowchasers is his study of Games of Darkness, which he is able to construct. While his are not nearly as cruel as some created in the past- and in keeping with Shadowchasers ethos, they are _always_ fair- they are a weapon he hesitates to use in the presence of others simply because of the very high risk not only to himself, but also to the target. In addition, if his abilities became known, many questions would be asked regarding his apparent affinity with this branch of magic- questions Nicholas is not eager to divulge the answers to.

Nicholas's greatest accomplishments as a Shadowchaser are in the field of translating and codifying Infernal Law, the so-called 'legal codes' of the Devils and their courts. While such translations are mostly interesting for academic purposes, they have been of help to the Shadowchasers in the rare cases when the group is forced to assist a being trapped in a contract with a devil. Nicholas, personally, also finds the structure of the curses and binding enchantments which often accompany such contracts interesting, and has made a study of them as well- though most have limited application for a human with no Infernal blood or abilities.

**Fake Card Report!**

_Nicholas-_

**Fool of the Fae Courts, Goodfellow**

_Monster/DARK/Fairy/4*_

Atk 800/Def 1600

If you control a face-up LIGHT Fairy-type monster and no other monsters, and that card has less Atk than the lowest Atk monster your opponent controls: You can special summon this card (from your hand). When this card is special summoned successfully: Target one of your opponent's monsters; when the targeted monster is attacked by a Fairy-type monster you can switch its battle position.

**Unseelie Shaper**

_Monster/DARK/Fairy/4*_

Atk 0/Def 0

Cannot be special summoned by the effects of other cards. When this card is summoned: You can tribute it; target one level four Fairy-type monster in your graveyard and special summon that target. If this card is in your graveyard and you control no monsters: You can skip your draw phase to special summon this card from your graveyard. If you do: When this card is sent to the graveyard, banish it.


	3. Chapter 3

Have you been paying attention? The second set of results for the Shout-Out drinking game!

**Nicholas Hates Boats-** No, it's not Nicholas's sea-sickness that's the shout-out here. The passage discussing it, on the other hand, is a pretty clear riff on the opening of the horror/adventure game classic, "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream" and Harlan Ellison's very memorable text. The original passage discusses the supercomputer AM's hatred for all of humanity. Go check the opening out on youtube if you're interested in seeing Harlan Ellison's _far superior_ way with words in action. (And yes, riffing on a horror game but placing the riff in a comedic context was an _intentional_ start to the chapter)

**Ellen's Scanner- **Duel disk, set! D-Gazer, set!

"**Beware of the Rabid Gigobyte"-** How could I have missed this one? While technically in chapter one, this shout-out is to _The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy_ by Douglas Adams. If you caught this, feel free to take an extra shot!

**Thaddeus Kleig- **While not technically my character (and thus, not really my shout-out), Thaddeus's abilities are inspired in part by the character Alexander Andersen from _Hellsing_, as is his fanatical attitude toward the Light and the Glorious One in general. His command phrase for invoking his light-based abilities is a reference to Saix from Kingdom Hearts II, who has a very similar shout which flags his use of a Berserker mode.

**Ellen's Gear- ** Two references for the price of one! While the system is a reference to the magical girl genre in general, the specific use of the command "Set Up" is a reference to _Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha_ and its related series. Ellen's use of a net-like capture weapon is a reference to the character Eva-Beatrice from _Umineko No Naku Koro Ni- _specifically her meta-world finisher in the doujin fighting game _Ougon Musou Kyoku Cross._

Harley managed four shots of pure Wilderness Bunch sacred moonshine this time. How many did you earn the right to drink?

_Corrections for the Last Chapter-_

Nicholas's "Silver Storm"- The internal effect of the barrier is a slowed _perception_ of time for the caster and targets, to avoid conflicting with Shadowchasers canon involving true time manipulation. In addition, I accidentally used "trio" to describe a barrier surrounding five people.

Unseelie Shaper's Monster Effect- Nicholas states that Unseelie Shaper can be tributed to summon a level four fairy type from the 'hand or graveyard'. This is incorrect- the card report at the end of the chapter contains the card's accurate text.

"Light everywhere!"- I managed to use the word 'light' way too many times during the summoning of Voltanis the Adjudicator. That's what I get for rushing out the end of the chapter.

_**Shadowchasers- Colors of Madness**_

_Chapter Three: Colors of The Past_

"_There is no good, or evil. Only Power, and those too weak to seek it."_

-Lord Voldemort, _Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone_

Pain.

Pain lanced through his head, his arms, his entire body.

He couldn't quite remember what had happened. Ezekiel had come up to him earlier. Bought him a drink to celebrate his first semester. He remembered laughing and flirting. Maybe a little more of the second than the first. In his addled state, he vaguely remembered thinking that tonight might finally be the night he sealed the deal.

Pain.

He couldn't move his arms.

Pain.

He couldn't move his arms.

The thoughts began to echo over and over through his mind, the only two solid things he knew. As his senses slowly returned, he began to panic.

He couldn't see- had he been blinded?

He couldn't move- what was wrong with his legs?

He tried to scream and it was muffled.

This place stank. Wherever it was. Where was he?

Slowly he began to understand. He was bound, hand and foot, blindfolded, and gagged. And he hurt. He hurt everywhere.

"Awww, waking up already? Good. It's about time for us to get started anyway."

Rough hands grabbed his body, dragging him across a room. He struggled. He screamed.

They dropped him anyway, and kicked him in the stomach for good measure.

Pain.

He began to feel consciousness slipping away again. Someone pinched him on the cheek.

"Stay awake, Nicky. The ritual says the victim has to be conscious."

_Conscious._

What the hell?

He redoubled his efforts to escape, but they were thwarted each time.

"Eh, this is no fun. Here, let me give you a hand."

A large hand grabbed him by his hair, roughly pulling him away from the ground, and a second one tore the blindfold from his face.

He shut his eyes against the glare of the light. When they adjusted, he had an idea of his surroundings. He was in a dim room, a large one- probably the interior of a warehouse somewhere downtown, he thought through the haze of pain and confusion. He had been dragged into the center of a circle of some sort- a wide circle, drawn on the ground in something red.

He didn't want to think about what that was.

He could see the corpses on the other side of the room. That explained some of the stench, he guessed. How did he get here? Had the police noticed him being kidnapped?

"Oh Nicky, it _really_ stinks I have to do this to you so early in our relationship but... well, rules are rules. The ritual said seven offerings linked by blood, and really I don't think there's anyone else I know who qualifies, do you?" It was that voice. That voice from earlier. Nicholas wriggled, trying to get a good look at his captor- no good. It was hard enough to move around bound like this, all he could see was a pair of designer shoes, unfortunately stained a bit red. His head was pulsing. Whatever had been in the drink was interfering with his ability to think.

'Whatever had been in the drink.'

Where had _that_ come from?

"Thanks a bunch for giving me your family name- do you know how many Mumfords there are in this state? If you hadn't shown me that photograph, I probably would have had a hard time tracking your brothers down. And man, if it wasn't a pain dragging them all here one at a time. I mean, don't get me wrong, nothing I couldn't handle but damn! If I wasn't about to get the ultimate letter of _carte blanche_, I don't think I'd be feeling this good about my little enterprise here.

That voice. That voice was familiar.

"Awww, Nicky, still haven't figured it out?"

A rough kick to his ribs. Nicholas's vison blurred as he was rolled over onto his back. He looked up, at the face of his captor.

The full, well-shaved face. That blonde, short-cut hair. Those eyes. That grin. That _laugh._

"Hey, Nicky. I bet this wasn't the kind of getting _laid_ you expected tonight, is it?" His captor howled with laughter.

As much as it turned his stomach to admit it, it had to be Ezekiel.

No other living being would have found a pun like that remotely amusing.

Which meant that Ezekiel had slipped him a drug and dragged him here against his will to participate in some kind of ritual. Which meant it was the man he had been dating for the past three months, who he was just beginning to grow comfortable with, who was currently standing over him holding a curved knife and licking the edge slowly, laughing at the terror in his eyes. Which meant that it was his boyfriend who had somehow tracked down his six brothers, taken them here, and-

Nicholas couldn't scream but he wanted to.

TTTTTTTTTTTTTT

"What. The hell. Was. That?" Nicholas gasped, clutching at his forehead. The entire right side hurt, and the pressure behind his skull was unbelievable.

Tara Rae's lips curled into a ruthless smirk. "It seems that your armor isn't impervious to the influence of the Light, Shadowchaser. What vision did the presence of Diabolos show you? A time of great pain? A moment of despair? For despair is all that is left for you now."

As she spoke, Lightray Diabolos reared up, roaring in agreement.

Nicholas, his hand shaking, pressed a button on his duel disk. "Counter trap card... Solemn Judgment." He forced the words out. Despite the certain turn-around this card represented, he couldn't help feeling like his actions were pointless. "By paying half my life points, I negate the summon of your monster and destroy it." (8000/2 = 4000)

As his life points fell, bolts of lightning lanced from the sky above, striking Diabolos over and over again. Even as her monster vanished, Tara Rae's grin continued. "Do you really think an emissary of the Glorious One will be dealt with so easily?"

"By the effect of Bountiful Artemis... since a counter trap resolved..." Nicholas found himself working, gasping out each phrase. "I draw one card."

Dully, he registered its identity, and the pressure in his head lessened slightly.

Tara Rae nodded, her grin wider than ever before as she placed another card on her duel disk. "I activate the spell card, Reverse of White! This quickplay spell can be activated at any time after one of my opponent's trap card resolves and destroys a monster. If that card was a light-attribute monster, it is returned to my hand and half its attack points are inflicted on your life points as damage!"

A brilliant white circle opened beneath Nicholas's feet, and he looked down. Below him, he could see the face of Lightray Diabolos- and the head of the dragon reared back as it charged a burst of energy. Nicholas brought up his arms to shield himself a moment too late as a pillar of light surrounded him. He screamed in pain as he fell to his knees, his body scorched. (LP: 4000-1400 = 2600)

No. Not scorched. The sensation passed. The game wouldn't allow the monsters to do permanent damage before a final attack could be reached. With effort, Nicholas forced himself to his feet.

"The summoning conditions are met again, and the Glorious One's emissary descends!" The pentagram of light that heralded the arrival of Diabolos traced itself anew in the air, and Nicholas could only watch as Tara Rae summoned it again. "Unfortunately... Reverse of White forbids me from summoning monsters other than the returned card this turn. Do not think yourself safe because of this, however." The spell card Tara Rae held above her head shone with a pale, silver light, and Nicholas winced as he saw its identity. "With this quickplay spell, Book of Moon, I force your Voltanis the Adjudicator into face-down defense position! You who would stand against the Glorious One, fade into nothingness and disappear!" Nicholas was forced to shield his eyes as the silver glow from the card enveloped his field and Voltanis. When it faded his monster, who had loomed over the field like a guardian angel up until this point, had been sealed away- nothing stood between him and Diabolos but Artemis and a horizontal card-back.

Tara Rae smirked. "I can see the fear in your eyes, Shadowchaser. Now, let me show you the true extent of Diabolos's power! _Absolute Light Edict!"_

Diabolos reared back his head and roared- an ear-shattering noise which caused Nicholas to clap hands to his ears. Veins of light ran across the dragon's body, pooling into a massive orb of light in its maw. "By banishing a Light-attribute monster such as my Judgment Dragon from the graveyard, Lightray Diabolos may check the identity of a set card, and return it to the top or bottom of your deck." Tara Rae snapped her fingers. "I can't be certain you have no remaining counter traps, and therefore... Diabolos! Hurl Voltanis into the depths of despair! _Glorious Decree!"_

Diabolos unleashed its attack, causing Voltanis's card to vanish from the field entirely. Nicholas felt his hands shake as the card floated of its own accord to the bottom of his deck. "God damn it," he choked, not sure what else he could say.

"Diabolos's attack isn't done yet." Tara Rae smiled sweetly, pointing at Nicholas's last line of defense. "You called your last attack... 'Shining Sublimation', was it not? You cannot understand what it really means to be lit with the eternal brilliance of the Glorious One. Diabolos, destroy his false angel! _Sublimation of Glory!"_

Nicholas had enough time to bring up his arms as a shield once more as Diabolos's attack struck his monster, obliterating Artemis entirely. (2800 Atk vs. 1600 Atk) (LP: 2600- 1200 = 1400)

Tara Rae smirked. "My turn ends here."

Nicholas swayed from side to side, falling to his knees, as his opponent laughed.

TTTTTTTTTTTTTT

_Wake up._

The black, misty shape in front of Nicholas glared down at him, its gleaming yellow eyes indifferent to his plight.

Nicholas struggled to his feet, his breath coming in short, ragged gasps. "Ugh..."

_This is disgraceful. When I spared your life that night, I thought I had chosen a vessel who could wield my power appropriately. Was I wrong about you? Will you let yourself die here?_

Nicholas clutched the side of his head, pain lancing through it. Unbidden, the memories began to swarm him once again.

TTTTTTTTTTTTTT

Ezekiel threw back his head, laughing as he kicked Nicholas in the side, eliciting a groan of pain from his victim. "Oh god, Nicky, you should see yourself right now- I bet I know exactly what you're thinking. 'Oh God, it's my Ezekiel! Whatever shall I _do?_ How could the man I love have done this to me? I'm dreaming, let me wake up soon!'"

Nicholas moaned but noise couldn't make it through his gag. What he'd actually been thinking at that moment was that he would have given anything to wrap his hands around that sick, condescending ass's throat.

"Don't worry about it, Nicky." Ezekiel lifted his knife, licking the edge again, and drove it into the ground next to his victim's head. "In a minute, I'm gonna make sure you don't have to worry about any of this ever again. I've got some _power_ to achieve though. And to do that, I need to make a few... sacrifices. Don't worry, it's perfectly safe!" He paused for a minute. "For me!"

The more his tormentor howled in laughter, the more frustration Nicholas felt. He struggled against the ropes that bound him- in vain. There was nothing around he could use to cut them.

This was how it was going to end.

The moment that through crossed his mind, he redoubled his efforts.

Damned if he was going to let that happen.

Ezekiel, ignoring his struggles, had picked up a duel monsters card and carried it to the center of the circle. "Let's see... mark the face with the blood of all the sacrifices, and your own before your final loss, that's what the ritual says. So I just do this..." He bit down on his thumb, drawing a drop of blood, which he smeared over the card's surface. "Perfect! Now we're ready to begin. Comfortable, Nicky? I hope so, you won't be in a few minutes."

Nicholas panicked. Not now. He couldn't be ready now.

Ezekiel grabbed the base of the knife.

Darkness spilled from the card.

TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT

Ellen's scanner ticked away as she tried desperately to analyzed Nicholas's mental state. This made no sense.

Everything indicated he was conscious- he was after all, standing up again and glaring at Tara Rae- but that dulled look in his eyes, and that dark aura seeping from his body said otherwise.

That barrier was impenetrable, to make matters worse. No way in or out unless-

_Impenetrable._

Ellen whirled and began scanning the perimeter barrier surrounding the island again. She had no choice but to trust Nicholas right now, regardless of whatever he was doing.

Besides, he had just provided her with a vital clue for escaping the island.

TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT

A lance of light whistled through space where Gideon had stood moments before as the tiefling whirled on his heels, delivering a quick thrust in response. The cultist who had attacked him grunted in disgust as he skipped backward, barely avoiding a strike which would have easily ripped open his neck. Gideon shifted his stance, preparing for the next assault.

It had been a grueling battle so far. Fortunately, Sylvia's earlier attack had destroyed the focus his opponent had been using to summon projectile weapons, and his abilities seemed limited to the blades of light he now carried- albeit, he seemed to have the ability to shift those too into spears, and reclaimed them as soon as they were thrown. This placed Gideon in an uncomfortable position. The blades of light seemed capable of cutting through anything placed in their path, which ruled out the possibility of parries and any counter which did not begin with a dodge. Their variable length and infinite supply also required him to move in close instead of keeping his distance. Let the opponent move out too far, and he would be dead. Let the opponent get too close, and his weapon would be destroyed.

In short, Gideon thought as he tensed his body for his next attack and charged, the perfect handicap. The angle of his attack forced his opponent to twist his body and attempt to dodge rather than block with his own weapons. He wasn't fast enough to avoid Gideon's sword opening a long, red line along his arm. With a scream of pain, he hurled another lance of light. Gideon cursed himself mentally as he dropped prone and immediately rolled to the side to avoid the follow up attack, coming back to his feet a moment later.

Beside him, Sylvia lashed out again and again with her whip- her opponent always just managing to dodge the attack, and her just managing to pull her weapon back before he could grip it. The old man's hands gleamed with power, and the crater he had managed to burn into the ground simply by touching it was enough evidence that whatever he did grab wouldn't last long- whip or Sylvia.

Gideon gritted his teeth as he found himself back to back with his partner again. "My lady, it's been an honor fighting by your side," he announced with as much gravitas as he could muster. Sweat poured down his brow. If this kept up much longer, exhaustion was going to be a major factor in the outcome of the fight.

"Likewise." Sylvia kept her voice level only through years of practice. Her body had begun to change and flow again as she instinctively rearranged her muscle mass, reshaping it into the most apt formation required for the attack she next planned to execute. This constant shifting kept her from tiring physically as quickly, but even with most of the shaping being done on a sub-conscious level the mental gymnastics required were beginning to tire her mentally and she knew it.

The cultists advanced, both still looking fresh- as if the otherworldly powers both wielded were somehow granting them new strength with every step they took.

"We should probably finish them off." Sylvia broke the silence.

Gideon laughed- a harsh, barking sound compared to his usual. "I suppose Harley would approve."

The two prepared for another engagement when a foreign sound entered the battlefield.

_Clap._

_Clap._

_Clap._

"Well done isolating these two rats Jacob, Corvin."

Thaddeus Kleig smirked at the two Shadowchasers as he raised his hands. "I had meant to avoid such base distractions, but the Light calls my colleagues to greater things- and the Glorious One would surely not wish for their efforts thus far to go wasted."

Gideon and Sylvia tensed as they were approached from three sides. Thaddeus stepped toward the two, a white cloak of energy slowly gathering around his body. To the side, both the sword-wielder and matter-destroyer made their advance.

_CRACK._

As the old man who had destroyed the ground earlier fell to the ground with a short gasp, a booming voice rang out across the battlefield. "Starting the party without me? Not very nice, you two."

Gideon couldn't help groaning. "Harley Rowan. You are late."

"Can't help it. Bastard I was tailing didn't show up on time." Harley tossed another stone up and down in his palm, grinning, even as he held his free hand to the point on his abdomen which had been pierced earlier. "Anyway, Kleigsman or whatever your name was? You should really make sure you finish the job next time. I'm not letting you anywhere near that monster."

"Persistent nuisance," Thaddeus replied as he produced two bayonet-like weapons from his sleeves. "You had your chance to live. Why would you squander it?"

"Same question, asshole," Harley retorted as his throwing arm reared back and snapped outward. The stone he was carrying made a dull 'thud' as it hit the ground not a foot away from where his opponent had stood before, burying itself.

"Corvin!" Gideon's attention veered. The blade-wielding warrior- apparently Jacob- was now helping up the fighter Harley had downed earlier, supporting him on his shoulders. "Can you yet serve?"

"The Glorious One's power within me fades not. I must." Corvin's tone was grim as he lifted the palm of his hand, recovering. Gideon squared himself to face the two.

A whistling noise filled the air, and a dull 'shlick' noise caught Gideon's attention. He leaped back and turned to the side, trying to see what had happened without averting his eyes from his enemies.

Harley swayed a bit from side to side, two of Thaddeus's bayonets piercing him- one through his right shoulder, one through the palm of his right hand. "S-shit," Harley managed, ripping the shoulder-piercing weapon out with his left hand, "Giddy, step up your game. This is a battle royale, not a duel."

"You sacrificed yourself for me." The words seemed almost foreign as they came out of Gideon's mouth.

"Uh-huh. Took a bullet for you. Now stay sharp, don't think I have it in me to take too many more." Harley's breathing was haggard. The sacred properties of his drink could speed regeneration, but they did nothing for pain, and they were never meant to be taxed to this extent. Breaking through Thaddeus's column of light earlier had stressed them to near their breaking point.

Gideon readied his sword. "Harley Rowan, I misjudged you."

This was all he said before lunging forward and vaulting over Harley, landing and swinging his blade to knock another bayonet from the air. The strike would have been near impossible for anyone else. Gideon did it with a speed and fluidity which made it look effortless. His next few steps carried him within striking range of Thaddeus, and he did so, only for the cultist to make an equally effortless block with his own weapon. Thaddeus opened his mouth. "_Light-_"

Another whistling noise filled the air, and Thaddeus staggered backwards as one of his own bayonets buried itself in his shoulder. Harley grinned as he ripped free the one in his right palm, ignoring the pain. "Gotcha back, didn't I?"

Thaddeus had no time to respond before Gideon's sword pierced his second shoulder. The tiefling twisted the blade, and with a sharp 'pop' Thaddeus's right hand hung uselessly at his side. "Surrender," Gideon ordered.

"_-Shine. DOWN!"_

Harley swore, running forward and grabbing Gideon by his shirt collar, hurling the tiefling backward as he dived to the ground. The column of light surrounding Thaddeus practically crackled with energy, and when it dissipated the cultist stood in the center- his wounds completely healed and the earth around him scorched black. "Do not take me so lightly, demon-spawn."

Harley opened his mouth to curse when someone roughly shoved him to the side.

In the next instant, Gideon fell down beside him, his sword dropping to the ground as the tiefling reached up toward a hole which had just been burnt through his shoulder. The lance of light which had inflicted the wound vanished into nothingness. "Careful yourself, Harley Rowan," Gideon managed.

Behind him, Sylvia's whip snaked out, grabbing Corvin before the destroyer could follow up on his partner's attack. With a quick tug she hurled him off to the side, pulverizing the old man against a nearby tree trunk. He slumped to the ground, still.

Harley looked at the injured Gideon. He looked at the position of the wound. He looked at the sword on the ground.

In the next instant, Jacob felt a rough hand close over the back of his head. He tried to scream, but before he could Harley had driven him face first into the ground. There was a sharp, crunching noise as his nose broke. Harley tossed him to the side and began advancing towards Thaddeus. "_If you touch him again I will rip you to pieces. I will chew you up, and nobody will ever find your body." _There was a deep, guttural growl behind the words, as if Harley's vocal cords had begun to snap and change in his rage.

Thaddeus leered at his enemy. "Bold words. How will you back them up?" Two more bayonets appeared in his hands. He hurled them.

Harley swung his good arm and knocked both out of the air. "_DieDIE DIE DIE DIE DIE-_"

Sylvia shuddered. She had heard stories about oni bloodlust, but this was beyond her expectations. Harley's entire body almost seemed to be warping, his muscles spasming as they tried to reshape themselves into a more suitable physique. She had never been quite sure what to believe about the stories of humans slowly becoming _youkai_, but she could see them in him.

Harley had taken the species line and crossed it a long time ago. At this point calling him 'human' seemed inadequate.

Thaddeus simply laughed at the display. "Come, then."

Harley charged. In that same moment, Corvin leaped to his feet, attempting a surprise attack on Sylvia. She dodged behind him, sweeping under his legs and knocking him to the ground. He pulled himself to his feet and charged again. Harley dodged a bayonet and locked arms with Thaddeus, both men struggling with each other as muscles began to rip beneath Harley's grasp and Thaddeus opened his mouth once more. "_Light-"_

"_ah."_

The noise was soft, but forceful enough that all five of the conscious fighters turned to face its source.

A young girl, blonde-haired, stood in the shadow of a nearby tree. Her dress was muddied, and torn, but at one point it had been beautiful. Her feet were bare, and covered in dirt. Her face was a mess, small cuts ran along the back of one arm. She lurched forward.

Harley's rage calmed for a moment. Gideon's stomach threatened to turn.

Then the girl raised her eyes to Thaddeus.

"_ah."_

With careless abandon, Thaddeus hurled a bayonet at her.

It was intercepted by a massive, red tail.

Harley uttered a soft expletive. "Shit."

In the next moment the girl had gone, and a howling noise filled the air.

The creature was five feet tall.

The creature was twenty feet tall.

It had four legs.

It had two.

It had one, enormous fox-like head.

It had three.

It had nine.

It had none.

It had fur.

It had scales.

It had feathers.

Its skin was smooth.

It had no skin.

The fighters looked on, fascinated, as the shape of the monster in front of them changed, flowing from one form to the next as naturally as breathing. Only one thing stayed constant through each transformation.

Nine tails.

Nine beautiful, terrifying, fox-like tails.

Finally the creature's form settled, and the nine-tailed fox roared a challenge before racing away from the combat, back into the woods.

Thaddeus sneered. "Once again, Shadowchasers, consider yourselves lucky." Before Harley could attack, a column of light shot from the sky, blinding everyone.

When Harley's vision cleared, he saw that all three of the cultists had vanished. Gideon leaned against a tree, clutching his injured shoulder. Sylvia had slumped to her knees, exhausted.

As his battle-lust faded and his vision began to grow hazy, Harley fell to his knees as well, only one word occupying his thoughts.

_Bastard._

TTTTTTTTTTTTTT

The stream of memories had finally abated, somewhat. Nicholas found himself again standing in the void, looking at his rescuer- the figure shrouded in mist. The pain in the back of his skull receded somewhat. "I see," he said, staring at the misty form looming over him. "I suppose I should thank you again. If you hadn't intervened back then, I might have died. In truth, I suppose it's possible the same could be said of this situation. I had almost given up hope."

_A coward's words,_ The voice of the creature sneered. _Only those without conviction or courage give up a fight when they possess the power to seize victory._

"This is true." Nicholas looked the creature in the eyes. "But I have not yet given up."

TTTTTTTTTTTTTT

"T-the hell? This wasn't supposed to happen yet!" Ezekiel dropped the card on the ground, black mist surging from it until it formed a rough outline- a creature who towered over both murderer and victim. "Nicky? Are you doing this?"

Nicholas writhed on the ground, finally succeeding in dislodging his gag. He took a deep breath and coughed, finally glaring at his attacker. "And how the hell would I have done that?" he managed.

_But you did._

Nicholas and Ezekiel both looked into the eyes of the creature, which glowed a bright yellow through the mist emerging from the card. _You called me into this world, bound one._

"The fuck?" Ezekiel exploded. "Don't you mean I did it? It was my ritual! That guy in the black hood told me this was the ritual I needed to complete to get power and wealth, right? I called you here, not him! He's supposed to be the sacrifice I trade for-"

_Shut up. I have defeated countless beings whose deeds were recorded in legends and the annals of history, and taken their essence into myself as power. What need would I have of a paltry offering of souls and human flesh? No, your ritual was worth _nothing_ to me, human._ The voice of the summoned being rang out. _I came here because in the instant you were about to carry out your worthless attempt to curry my favor, I felt a desire as deep as my own in the heart of this human being._

Before Nicholas could respond to this, Ezekiel grabbed him by the hair and hauled his head upright, causing him to cry out in pain. "Fine! I just cut his throat, and you drink that desire or whatever and follow through with the bargain! That's fine, right?" Ezekiel grabbed his knife's handle, tugging it out of the ground and preparing to strike.

_Bound one. What is your name?_

Nicholas thrashed as Ezekiel's blade touched his throat. "Nicholas!" He managed to shout back at the creature. "I'm Nicholas!"

The mist shifted- the creature seemed to smile. _I see. Your heart is filled with a burning desire for __power, is it not? To take revenge for your lost brothers, your broken heart, the unjust world you are part of. Such a desire amuses me. It has been too long since I have had a mortal bearer. Yes, Nicholas... I believe I shall grant this desire._

As Ezekiel prepared to strike a blow, a claw shot from the mist and impaled him. He gurgled and fell to the ground, bleeding out.

The ropes surrounding Nicholas went slack of their own accord as he pulled himself to his feet and walked to the card which was the source of the mist surrounding his savior. "I wish I had been the one to do that," he found himself saying.

_You shall do more. I lack the power of true foresight_ the voice seemed almost annoyed by this limitation of its own abilities, _but I see within you the seeds of greatness. You have a hunger within you which will take you far, and the abilities to supplement it. I will add one thing more to this._

"What's the catch?" Nicholas asked even as he reached for the card.

_You can never reject power. You must spend your life moving forward, working bit by bit to seize more, to advance yourself. Should I ever feel your hunger has dulled, I will abandon you in that moment and crush you._

Nicholas picked the card up. Slowly the mist surrounding the creature began to fade back into it- and into Nicholas himself. "There is absolutely no danger of that."

He took in his surroundings. The bodies around him. The corpse of his lover and would-be murderer.

"I will never stop desiring power. Because I will always need power. The power to prevent this."

TTTTTTTTTTTTTT

Nicholas reached out, forcing his hand into the mist and grabbing his partner's body, feeling cold scales against his hand. "I have not given up yet. I will not reject your power. No, if anything, I desire it more than ever right now. Look into my heart and feel my hunger."

_Your heart is full of that 'friend' of yours._

"I will take my power," Nicholas replied, "and use it to ensure that I will _not lose him as I lost those seven."_

The creature nodded, the mist clearing.

_Then wake up, Nicholas. We have business to finish. I will grant you my power once again._

TTTTTTTTTTTTTT

Nicholas came to in time to hear the last few words of his opponent.

"You spineless, gutless Chaser! Fight or surrender! Make up your mind!"

"_Final turn_."

Tara Rae recoiled slightly. Something was _different _now.

Nicholas placed his fingertips on the top card of his deck, now smirking at Lightray Diabolos. "It seems this _Glorious One_ of yours got his hands on a rather impressive power." He drew. "I'll be taking that away from you now."

Tara Rae threw back her head and laughed. "A _human_, taking the power of the Glorious One- as his own? Have you gone insane?"

"Spell card, Counter Revolution!" A burst of light filled the air. "When this card is activated, I can immediately transfer control of it to you!"

Tara Rae hissed as the card transferred itself to her side of the field. "What manner of trickery-"

Nicholas smirked. "And now the second effect- I can use the effects of Counter Trap cards in my graveyard in response to Counter Revolution, provided I pay their costs. I activate Solemn Judgment, paying half my life points once again!" As his life point counter fell, dark clouds bloomed, scouring across the battlefield between both players. (LP: 1400/2= 700)

A storm front appeared in the previously-clear sky of the island as Nicholas raised his next card into the air. "Counter Revolution was treated as if my opponent had activated it- and therefore, I can special summon this card from my hand. Come, partner! Let's finish this battle together! _From the depths of the realm beneath, reach out and grasp supremacy. Come forth, Van'dalgyon the Dark Dragon Lord!"_

The storm front parted, and Nicholas's new monster emerged, landing on the battlefield. The dragon lord's body was basically humanoid in shape, but little touches- the pointed, reptilian head, his clawed fingers, the aura of power and darkness he exuded- proved he was anything but. He spread the metallic wings which hung across his body like a cape, and roared a challenge.

Lightray Diabolos answered it, roaring back. Sparks of light flashed from its body, deflected instantly by a cloud of dark mist which rose and obscured Van'dalgyon's features. (2800/2500)

Tara Rae hissed. "A demon?"

"A spirit," Nicholas corrected. "A duel spirit who I have a standing contract with, hence my limited power over games like this. Now, let me demonstrate why you were a fool to ever think you or your 'Glorious One' could defeat us in such a challenge." He snapped his fingers. "Van'Dalgyon applies an effect instantly when he's summoned depending on the card my counter trap negated. Since that card was a spell card, you will immediately take one thousand, five hundred points of damage. _Claws of the Dark Lord!"_

The mist wrapping Van'Dalgyon vanished, wrapping itself around Tara Rae's body, choking her. (LP: 3600- 1500 = 2100)

She rose, choking. "The Glorious One's power won't be so easily taken-" the words were slower, less certain.

Nicholas held up a second card. "Equip spell- Megamorph." Shining runes carved themselves across Van'Dalgyon's body, and he grew again. "The equipped monster's attack points double, provided my life points are lower than my opponent's." Van'dalgyon was now twice the size of Lightray Diabolos. "For all your monster's glory- can you see now, the gap between you and me?" (5600 Atk)

Tara Rae had no time to utter a rejoinder as Van'dalgyon stepped forward. _I need not be told to attack, _it rumbled as its claws came down. Lightray Diabolos screamed as its body was rent apart. (5600 Atk vs. 2800 Atk) (LP: 2100 – 2800 = 0)

Tara Rae fell to her knees as images faded. In her mind's eye, Nicholas had grown into a titan. He reached forward, plucking Diabolos from her duel disk, appraising the card, and placing it in his own deck. "As the loser of this game, you are subject to a penalty. This rule is unavoidable." He leaned down, whispering it into her ear. "...And for your crimes, I sentence you to experience..." He paused for a moment in thought. "_The loss of your faith._"

Tara Rae's voice caught. "Wh-"

"You have fought this far because of your devotion to the Glorious One. It means more to you than anything else. I could kill you now, but if I killed you, you would not suffer. So instead, I'm going to take the most valuable thing I can from you- you will sleep, and when you awaken you will have never heard of the Glorious One, or the Light, or know why you are here. You will merely be a mortal, trapped on an island which is filled with monsters of your own making. And if they hunt you down and kill you, so much the better. This is my sentence, Tara Rae." Nicholas snapped his fingers. "This is absolute justice."

The cultist screamed as her entire world faded to black.

At the same moment, the shadow game faded away, and Nicholas stepped towards Ellen, who regarded him coolly. "I want an explanation," She said, pretending not to notice the prone body of Tara Rae behind him.

Nicholas shook his head. "It's none of your business-"

His voice was cut off by Ellen pointing her staff at his throat. "You just used unauthorized dark magic in my presence and revealed an undisclosed relationship with an entity of incredible power. Furthermore, you just flagrantly disobeyed Shadowchasers guidelines by _scrubbing clean a portion of that woman's mind._ I expect an explanation, Nicholas. Now."

**Shadowchasers Personnel Profile**

_**Gideon, "The Sword of the Lord"**_

**Active Period- **Begins twenty years before the events of "Colors of Madness"

**Specialties-** Speaks Infernal, Wizard of Swords, Man to Man Combat, Duel Theory and Applications

**History With the Force- **Gideon does not know much of his mother, beyond that he has an Infernal heritage through her. Instead, his memories throughout his childhood were dominated by his father- an orthodox Christian who loved his son and raised him within his own faith. Gideon's lack of a surname is not meant to show that he has cut ties with his family- rather, he cut off his name in order to make sure that nobody could connect his father with a tiefling son after he went into the ministry. As a child, Gideon was fascinated by stories of knights-errant and chivalry- joining the Shadowchasers was his first step toward achieving that goal.

However, before that point, he was rescued by them. Attacked by an angry lynch mob who smelled his Demon heritage on him, Gideon was saved by the intervention of Jalal himself. Vowing fealty, Gideon joined the Shadowchasers and dedicated himself to studying what he considered the 'twin arts' of the Chaser- the martial disciplines of swordplay and Duel Monsters. In the process, he unlocked a natural talent- a gift for using a blade which transcends words. While naturally right-handed, he's capable of wielding his blade in either hand due to an intense regimen of practice.

**Keywords- **_Blade User, Partnership, Champion, Duelist_

Moreso than any other member of the "Color Guard", Gideon treats the game of Duel Monsters with respect and décor, and is quicker to reach for his duel disk- or any non-violent solution- than his team members. When talking about the team, it's not an exaggeration to say that barring any supernatural intervention, Gideon is the most skilled duelist among them- his abilities at duel monsters could easily get him a job in the professional sphere, and it's well known that his one 'dirty secret' is practicing in underground arenas with slightly less than savory conditions- such as the long-forbidden "ante rule". His major role model as a duelist is Edo Phoenix, who he saw duel as a child and has a strong sense of admiration for- he's gone on record as saying he might trade a limb for a copy of "Destiny Hero Plasma".

Gideon's friendship with Nicholas is born of mutual admiration. While Gideon is staunchly loyal to Jalal, he finds his friend's commitment to justice admirable as well, and is willing to stand by him provided he isn't asked to pick sides. Nicholas was also the first Shadowchaser stationed with Gideon to see him as an ally and partner first, and not a potential liability or turncoat, which Gideon regarded as a refreshing change. He does not appear to have noticed Nicholas's deeper feelings for him, and thus it is impossible to gauge his response to them- beyond the fact that even if he did not reciprocate, it would be difficult to imagining him abandoning his friend.

**Homebrew Card Report!**

**Counter Revolution**

_Normal Spell_

After this card its played, transfer ownership of it to your opponent this turn (_treat this card as if your opponent had activated it)_. Either player can respond to this card's activation with the effect of a Counter Trap in their graveyard (all activation costs must still be paid).


End file.
